Ode to my love
by mcdn11
Summary: Mortal AU Artemis is a 16-year old girl on a music-focused highschool. She, along with her twin brother Apollo, are the top musicians. Even with her high reputation, she is still unhappy with all her decisions. Then came Percy Jackson, the boy who changed the perspective of her life. Short summary, original idea. Strictly Pertemis
1. Classical

"Get out" an old woman told a young auburn-haired teen, clearly disgusted with what she heard.

"No wait please Professor Grazini" the young teen pleaded "I swear I won't make the same mistake again"

"Miss Galanis take control of yourself! You of all people should know that the same error repeated twice is inexcusable! Now please get out of my classroom while I still think highly of you," The young teen knew better than to annoy her piano teacher. She picked up her sheets of music, stuffed them on her bag and left the room.

The auburn haired walked through the high school halls, with embarrassment noticeable on her face.

"Phoebe Artemis Galanis please report to the office," she heard through the intercom.

It wasn't the first time she had been called into the office of course. It was very common she and her brother Apollo were asked by the school administration to perform in some type of event, to pick stuff up for professors or even to substitute classes. They were the model students of the school, each capable of mastering any instrument. While her brother was really good with any string instrument, she was better in percussion, wind and the piano.

Apollo and Artemis were as different as they were alike. Being twin siblings, they were in a constant state of fighting. Between the "who's older" debate and the "I have more talent than you" fight, they never seize to take any opportunity to criticize each other.

They both were the most popular students in the whole Olympic Musical Conservatory High School, or how many students like to call it, hell. You see, only about 100 students from all around the world got to stay at the high school. It was the elite of the elite. If you wanted to be a professional musician, didn't matter what genre of music, it was expected to go to OMC to have a secure future. With only 25 students per grade, the school maintained its high standards of admission. It didn't matter if your family had money or not, admission was based purely on talent.

Of course, having money did help the process by a long shot. This was the case for the twins. The father of the twins, Zeus Galanis, was the billionaire owner of a multinational company with branches in almost every department. With his money, Zeus provided private music tutors to the twins, wanting to expose them to music from a really young age. Much was his surprise when he saw that he had two music prodigy's under his roof.

The majority of the people had no idea where this talent came from, as Zeus was the most tone-deaf person in existence and Hera was really bland in all aspects. What some believed was that the twins were born to a Mistress of Zeus called Leto, the daughter of one of the world most influential musician. Nobody knew if this was true, but it seemed to be considering the difference between both twins and their supposed mother.

Since discovering their talent, Zeus made both twins take on every instrument he could afford (which was all of them). But still, since a very young age, Artemis knew that her passion wasn't music. Her passion was archery, she never missed a shot. When she did this, she felt free and careless. Nevertheless, there wasn't an opportunity where she could tell her father her deal passion.

'_Father, I don't want to keep doing music. I don't like it much, I never have. What I really want to do is archery._' She had thought of telling her father.

'_How dare you?! After all the effort I've put on you! Do you know how many children pray they were born with your talent?! You should be ashamed_' was the reply she had imagined her father would've given her over and over again

Even while being the most popular girl in the whole school, she never had any relationship. The closest she had gone was with an ex-alumn named Orion. He was an expert Cello player, able to improvise an entire opera. She had fallen head over heels for him, and he had too. Then, the day she was going to confess her love to him, a violent heart failure problem took his life. She cried in agony for days, mourned for months, and even now she wasn't completely over him.

He was the only boy who had ever looked at her in that way. Artemis wasn't an ugly girl, on the contrary. She was one of the most beautiful girls imaginable. Long silky auburn hair came down a little over shoulder length, a healthy tan on her skin made her shine under the moonlight. But what always stood out was the color of her eyes, moonlight silver.

Even when she was the closest thing to a goddess, her love life was as depressing as can be. No boys wanted to be with her, all the girls asked her for advice and the only guy who had returned her feelings had died a spontaneous death. It would be an understatement to say that Artemis wasn't the happiest girl alive.

And now, in a school where it was more important to know how to play a key in drums (as hard and stupid as that sounds) than her formal education, she felt even more depressed.

A depression not caused by insecurity, but rather at lack of opportunities. Not lack of money or lack of popularity, just the feeling that all her life she has been forced to do a thing she has never liked much.

Artemis walked directly to the office, not really nervous as to why she had been asked there. As she stepped in, she saw that sitting in a black chair was a new student. He had black hair and a swimmers body, but that was as far as she could see.

"Hi Olga, why did you call me?" Artemis asked the receptionist

"Good Afternoon Artemis. There is a new student and the principal has asked for you to give him a tour. He's just outside sitting in a chair," she leaned forwards to tell Artemis something "make sure he feels welcomed, if anything happens to him we are screwed" she told the young girl, who just nodded in understanding.

"Alright Olga, I'll try my best," Artemis replies, walking to the chair outside. She stood in front of the new kid started talking

"Hey I'm Artemis and I'm going to be giving you a tour of hell-I mean OMC. What's your name?" She asked the new kid.

He looked up to see the beautiful girl who had just talked to him. His sea green eyes met her silver ones, each of hem breath-taken by the other.

"I-I'm Perseus Jackson, but just call me Percy," he said stuttering a little

"Pleasure" Artemis extended her hand to make a handshake with the new kid

"The pleasure is all mine" Perch Jackson said with a toothy grin.


	2. Indie

Artemis POV

"And this is the cafeteria, where they serve actual good food." I motioned my hand towards the multiple tables. Giving the tour to the new kid has always been a kind of job for me, but Percy (the kid in giving the tour to) was different from the rest.

I mean, not only was he a mystery (because I don't think there's anybody in the whole history of OMC that has arrived in Senior year), but he was also funny. He has black hair, sea-green eyes, and a swimmers body. I knew instantly that he would be popular around the school, but we just had to see how he played.

"And at what time do we eat? I'm kind of hungry," asked Percy. Simultaneously, his stomach growled in confirmation.

"Well it's around 5 right now, and dinner-which is optional by the way- starts at 6. So we have an hour to finish the tour."

"Is there really much else to see?" He asked tiredly. I couldn't blame him, two hours giving a tour had definitely taken a toll on me.

"Not really, but still a few things"

We walked the whole school around three times, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. It was now 5:45 and the rest of the people were still in their classes. You see, here in hell, you take traditional classes (such as English, math, history) from 8-12 and then took music classes from 1-6. But since my _favorite_ teacher threw me out of the classroom, I have nowhere else to go. I mean, I still have to accompany Percy, but you get the idea.

"Can we sit?" He asked me, boring his eyes deep into mine to manipulate my response, which actually worked.

"Yeah sure, let's go to the cafeteria and wait the 15 minutes there," we walked towards the cafeteria. It had around ten round tables, with ten seats each. The walls were eggshell white (which is really just white) and the tables were a combination of grey and white. The seats were sky blue, each of them perfectly aligned to the tables. It was an OCD person heaven, just to give you an idea.

We took a seat on the table I always sit on. Here sat the "popular" people of the school. And, as much as k hate to admit it, I was the most popular girl in the school. I'm sincerely not bragging, as there isn't really much to it. Everybody knows you and expects the best out of you...that's it.

"Your last name is Galanis right?" Percy asked breaking the uncomfortable silence that was cast upon us

"Yeah, why?"

"I swear I've heard it before. Galanis Galanis" he put on a thinking face, which really just made him look constipated. "Wait, what's your father's name?"

"Zeus Galanis" he stared in shock, his jaw actually hanging open. "You might want to close your mouth,"

"Zeus Galanis?! He's like the person my dad hates the most!" Really unexpected, I know.

"Say what?"

"My father is Poseidon Kalivas!" And then that's when it clicked. Poseidon Kalivas is the owner of one of the most powerful companies in the world. He's the owner of the Universal Studios, Fox Studios and many of the most influential recording labels!

"Get out of here. Why isn't Kalivas your last name then?"

"That's the magic of your parents separating before you're born,"

"I'm sorry"

"Don't apologize. You were a fetus when that happened so it can't be your fault," I chuckled

I looked at my watch and it marked 5:55. Five more minutes and then the jungle of kids will all come running towards here.

I saw that the lunch ladies were already ready to serve the food. I motioned Percy to follow me over to the counter.

"Hi, Tricia! Hello Pat!" I greeted them, already being on their good side, but trying to keep myself there

"Hello there Phoebe, what can we do for you today?" Tricia replied. They always tend to call me by my first name, no matter how much I tell them that I _hate_ my first name. If it's Phoebe Artemis then I'll let it slide, but _Phoebe?! _No dude, we have our limits.

"Could you be kind enough to serve us food? The bell rings in two minutes, but you know how the kids get when they smell the food," I joked, trying to make them sympathize with my cause.

"Oh yes, the terrible children. One plate?"

"Actually two, I'm giving a tour today," I motioned my hand towards Percy, who just stood there looking intimidated by the cafeteria staff.

"Well sure sweetheart. Two plates it is!" she served us with the delicacy that was OMC cafeteria food. It's probably one of the awesome things in the school. I mean, paying close to 100,000 a year (plus the donatives that thousand of people provide) should be enough to give us quality food. Sure, many of the students are on scholarship, but it's still a school with way too much money.

Percy and I sat down to eat our dinner. Before I could even take my first bite, the bell rang and the sound of the jungle was heard throughout the halls. First to enter the cafeteria were the seniors, then followed by the freshmen, sophomores and juniors. The freshmen were the most annoying creatures on Earth. Tons of "anna-oo" and "sksksksksk" surrounded the once peaceful cafeteria environment.

"How are freshmen so annoying?! I wasn't like that at that age," my twin said sitting down next to me and hugging me. Apollo was...annoying to say the least. He always argues about stuff that he knows I'm right about, always tries to make me mad and is overprotective of me.

I saw Percy's eyes sadden a little, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I mean, I just met the guy and it would be weird if I had an immediate crush on him.

"You are still annoying as hell Apollo," I said shoving him off of me. "You just aren't that cringey," I told him. He gave me a peck on the cheek and I almost puked.

"Anyways who's the new guy sitting in Hermes seat?" He asked me.

"Yeah who is this nice specimen? Artemis wy are you drinking with a straw?! You're killing the turtles! Where is your hydro flask?" Aphrodite, the school VSCO thot asked as she sat besides Percy. Aphrodite is beautiful, to say the least. Honestly, she is the most beautiful person to ever exist, literally a goddess.

"I left my hydro flask at home," I was forced to get it, let's make that clear "And that's Percy, my boyfriend"


	3. Experimental

Artemis POV

As soon as I said that, the whole cafeteria just shut up. There was a consensus of people who practically silently screamed '_Artemis with a boyfriend?! God does exist_'. Between all my friends looking at me as if I was crazy and/or looking at Percy as if he were a god, said person just stared at me in confusion, and I just did my 'follow my lead' eyes, hoping he got my message.

"Your what?" Apollo muttered, clearly not happy with the idea of his OLDER SISTER in a relationship. That was just what I wanted, annoy Apollo and help Percy accommodate with this life along the way. Trust me, I'm not that bad of a person.

"He's my boyfriend. I told you about him before, you just never listen to me when I talk," I easily lied my way through.

"You're lying" he replied. I forgot that he was like a human lie detector. Fortunately, I've known him for 16 years, so I should know how to win this fight.

"Am I? Let's see, why did I say that Amy Schumer was the worst comedian alive?" I asked him full knowing he never paid attention to me while I was ranting.

"Touché," He said after a few seconds of deep thought.

I turned to see Aphrodite and Eros bombing Percy with questions. Of course, the two being the biggest matchmakers and gossipers of history, I knew that whatever Percy said could and would be used against me.

"Could I borrow Percy for a little bit?" I asked in a sickly sweet tone, making no room for argument.

"Of course Arty, just remember what I've taught you" Aphrodite winked at me. I blushed immediately after remembering all her...sexual lessons... Like, I never asked for them but she still thought I had nothing else to do than listen to her basically being a thot.

Grabbing Percy by the wrist, I made my way to the violin room. Hundreds of craft made violins sat there waiting to be played by some person. The white room made everything look so peaceful considering this was one of the worst teachers. Mrs. Olmedo had such a bad reputation. It never happened to me, but once I remembered that a girl came out crying her eyes out with her fingers bleeding. Nobody knew what happened, and nobody wants to know either.

Jesús I sidetracked, I'm sorry. So yeah I pulled Percy to the violin room and locked the door.

"So I'm your boyfriend?" Were the first words to come out of his lips

"Okay let me explain"

"Oh please do"

"Well, the truth is that I wanted to annoy Apollo. He's my brother and he's always going around all these girls, always bringing them home and basically rubbing in my face how much better he is at romance and stuff. And it gets old like I seriously want to punch him so much. So when Aphrodite asked me who you were, there was some kind of reflex that made me answer that." He sat there analyzing the situation with great detail, to the point where he just stared blankly at the violins.

"What's in it for me?" The question caught me off guard

"What?"

"Say I pretend to be your boyfriend. How would that help me in any way?"

"Well, you could instantly make many friends because you would sit with us an-"

"I don't care about any of that" he interrupted me. Well shells, I didn't think he wouldn't be shallow. "What else can you give me?"

"Erm, I could help you out with professors and give you extra tutoring in every class." He smiled brightly

"Yes! Trust me, I will need tutoring. Also, I require that you spend time with me until you think it is a good idea to 'break up' the relationship. Sound good?"

"Perfect" I smiled at him.

A question popped into my mind and I thought this was the best place and moment to ask it. "How did you get in as a senior?" His smile faded, his body slurped

"I don't really want to talk about it. Let's just say I lost someone very important to me and my family thought it would've been best to have a change in scenery." When he said that, my mind quickly went towards Orion.

Orion was my first love in almost all aspects of the phrase. We spent every day together, I changed for him and he changed for me. We wrote music together, we laughed, we felt free with each other. But of course, life just can't let you be happy.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I know how it feels to lose someone important," I told him putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"So Arty!" He put on a smile "should we do something while in the halls so people believe we are together?" I hadn't thought about that, rookie mistake.

"We could hold hands," I suggested. His smirk grew, which made me uneasy

"Yes true, but I remembered we aren't in sixth grade anymore. We should kiss," my mouth hanged open. _How could he say that so nonchalantly?! _

_"_What?"

"You know that couples kiss. If you want us to be a couple we have to be able to kiss. Am I right or am I right?" Mirth reflected from his eyes

"First of all, drop the attitude. It's literally your first day here. Second of all, you want us to make out in the halls?! You want us to be the reason why people can't get to their classes on time?!" He just nodded with his head. "Can't we just, not make out? Like maybe a small, tiny little peck but no making out?" I asked him hopeful that he might say yes. He looked at me up and down until he came to a realization.

"You're a kiss virgin" I lunged forward to cover his mouth with my hand. "Hmhandhdjsjzjskahzkaj" he continued to say with my hand on his lips. I felt something wet on my hand, something disgusting.

"Ew gross! You licked my hand!"

"Yes I did, now let's talk business" he moved his seat towards mine, so we were close enough to be facing face to face. "Have you never really kissed anybody? Not even at a party?"

"Not really. It's not that I don't want to honestly, it's just that guys don't like me. I mean, there's gotta be something wrong with me. If my twin brother can get girls by the minute, why can't I get a guy once?" I said, not really sure why I was sharing this much with basically a stranger.

"Hey, look at me" I brought my head up to be looking directly at him "Guys are stupid. I don't know you well enough yet but I can say that you don't seem as pretentious as I thought you were,"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on! Look at yourself! You look like the Regina George of this school," I didn't know if that was a compliment or not.

He sighed after he saw my dubious face "look," he said "you're beautiful, I think everybody knows that. From what I've seen so far, you're a great person. Add to that the amount of money you have and any guy will want to have you!"

"But then why aren't they?"

"Ok, I think you're just hormonal at this point. You want someone to be with you right?" I nodded "well here's someone" and then he did the unexpected.

He leaned into me, slowly so I had time to adjust, gently putting his lips on mine. It was my first kiss and so far it was amazing.


	4. Jazz

Artemis POV

As Percy kissed me, my thoughts seemed to disappear. It was as if I was just way too focused on _nothing_ at all, literally forgetting the second before. Then, after finally five seconds I think, my consciousness returned. I pushed him away and brought my hand to my lips in disgust.

"Dude! What the hell?!" I yelled at him, being glad that the rooms were soundproof

"You know, it would be weird if your first time was out in the halls," Percy replied, not hinting regret in his words "for being your first time, I must say you're a great kisser"

"Shut up, just shut up," I told him grabbing my head in my hands "Look, we are FAKING a relationship. If you can't control yourself I'll just find somebody else and let you deal with this hell all by yourself,"

"Then why did you choose me?"

The reason for that was very simple if I had to be honest; the reason is called impulse. Of course, he reminded me of a certain someone who I'd rather not talk about, but still. I just saw the opportunity and I took it.

"Because I wanted to help you. But I'll just do this with Hermes and leave you with the freshmen to deal with everything," I got up my seat and headed towards the door.

"Wait! I really don't wanna get stuck with the 'annaoop gang' Arty" he told me. I turned around super mad and beckoned him closer to me. He did so.

"First of all, don't call me Arty if we're not faking the relationship. Second, if you want me to help you be popular here, you have to abide by my rules. Understand?"

"Yes Phoebe"

"It's Artemis" I glared "The first rule is to have no physical contact in private. You shall not touch me during tutoring, you shall not hug me if you're excited, and by no means will you kiss me. Second, you will let me do all the talking about our relationship. If by any chance Aphrodite or Eros start asking questions, just reply with 'I met her during the summer and we started texting constantly'. A concise answer always works. Third and most important of all, you must tell me if you develop feelings for a girl so we can break this up. I'm trying to make a point, not ruin your life. Do you get all the rules?"

"Yes Artemis," he said "I understand. Quick question tho, will we hang out besides during school and tutoring?"

I hadn't thought about that. On the one hand, it'll help me get to know him better and potentially make a new friend. On the other hand, it might make me develop feelings, which I do not want.

"We'll see about that"

We headed out, hand in hand (for fake relationship purposes only, of course) and headed towards the cafeteria. Almost everyone had already left, with only a couple of sophomores and three of my friends still in the cafeteria. As we entered, my friends turned their heads to us and rose their eyebrows. Sighing, I went over to our table, dragging Percy with me along the way.

"Well look who finally decided to show up," Aphrodite perked up "did you finally have fun Artemis?"

"Shut up Aphrodite. I wouldn't do that in school, unlike you" she puffed like a little girl, knowing how right I was. I loved Aphrodite, I really did. I mean. She is my best friend since I can remember (even if we are as different as night and day), but that doesn't mean I'm unaware of her thot status.

"Well Artemis, getting it on with the new kid. Mind if I post it in the newspaper?" Hermes asked. He had Sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, specialized in the trumpet. Apart from that, is the president of the newspaper club and the fastest person you'd ever meet. He wasn't that y'all, probably standing at around 5'7, but he made it up with his charisma. Even with that stature, his presence around the room was well felt.

"I'm not getting anything on. And I don't believe anyone would want to read this story,"

"Oh, I would beg to differ," he grinned as he winked to Percy, who just lowered his face.

"So, Percy" my brother started to say "where did you meet Artemis?"

"We met during the summer on one of our trips. We started snapchatting after that and then he transferred" I replied, giving my brother an innocent smile

"Thanks for replying Percy" Apollo glared at me "So, where are you from _Percy?" _

"I'm from New York City. I transferred because my dad forced me because I was kinda flunking all my classes"

"And this was your solution?" Hermes interjected

"My dad's stupid I know"

"Say, I didn't know Artemis liked dumb boys. Certainly, Orion wasn't like that"

"Apollo..." Hermes began to say, clearly not finding the words to ease the situation.

That was a step too far and he knew it. As soon as he said it, my glare at him just stopped being, a look of unbelief taking its place. I wouldn't have thought he would've gone that far. Everybody in school knew that Orion was a very touchy subject, and for him to use him like that is something that I wouldn't let pass.

"Phoebus," I grabbed Apollo by his collar "if you ever mention his name again, I swear on our mother that I'll smash your teeth against the wall until you can't eat ever again. Do you understand?"

He nodded his head, scared of the implications of my threat. When I let him go, he stood up and began to walk away. Pausing, he turned to our table and said "Paolo is arriving in 10 minutes to pick us up"

"You go alone, I'll find a ride. I can't be in the same place as you right now" he had a sad look, but kept walking as if it was nothing serious. When he was out of the cafeteria and hearing range, I asked a very important question.

"Is there anyone who can drive me to my house?"

"Sorry, but I'll have to do a rain check. I have to pick up my stepbrother from his soccer practice"

"It's alright, I understand. What about you Aphrodite?"

"I'm really sorry Artemis, but I have a photoshoot at 7, so it's going to be really hard to make it." Oh yeah, if I hadn't mentioned it before, Aphrodite is so beautiful that she's one of the most famous teenage models in all of the world. Including Russia.

"Arty why don't I give you a ride?" Percy said from beside me.

"You sure it's not a problem?"

"Not at all! I literally have nothing else to do"

"Then alright,"

"Should we get going?"

"Yes, of course. Bye peeps" I bid farewell to my friends, grabbing Percy's hand and going out of the cafeteria area.

As soon as we were out of visual reach of anybody, we separated our hands. There was no need to have so much physical contact while we were in private. Plus, it was part of our verbal contract. We went outside to the parking lot where the only two cars left were a Tesla and a Prius. Guess who's car was Percy's.

"You have a Prius? I thought you were rich." I joked

"No, my dad is rich. My mom isn't. Besides, the Prius causes less harm to the environment and the oceans"

"Less than the Tesla?"

"Maybe not. Anyways, let's go inside so I can give you a ride home," and so we sat inside

"Where do you live? I bet in Orange County"

"Yeah actually, in Tuxedo Park" he looked surprised

"How haven't I met you before girl? That's where my dad used to live. He moved like two years ago, but I always went there and played around,"

"I mean, that's where I live during the school year. When it's vacation, Apollo and I go to our real home."

"If you don't mind me asking, who's Orion?" my face took a crestfallen look, really not enjoying that topic.

"Nobody, nobody important."

"If you say so. Now fasten your seatbelt, 'cause we're about to take off towards the most expensive temporary home in the world!" we both laughed at his lame jokes. All I could say was that, I hoped he wouldn't turn into an asshole so we could keep hanging out eventually, as friends of course.


	5. Blues

Artemis POV

"So Artemis, your brother told me you have a boyfriend. When were you going to tell us about him?" my dad asked at the dinner table.

It's tradition for us to eat every single day dinner with the family. It's the attempt of my father to try and bring the family together, but to be frank, it hasn't worked at all and I doubt it ever will.

You see, my family is pretty big. I have three brothers and a sister (that I know of). My most important brother is obviously Apollo, because he's my twin and the only one I talk to. The other two are named Ares and Hephaestus, which one is the most boring person on the planet and the other is the most impulsive and violent one. They're both older and already work (at least one of them) but they still live at my house. Then my sister name is Hebe and she's 7 years old (I think), but I swear she has some type of dwarfism because she hasn't grown a lot since she was 4.

Then my "mom" is Hera and she's really strict. I say mom like that because Apollo and I both know we aren't her children. Starting with how we both have physical differences from our siblings, we can tell Hera has a special dislike towards us. Ares can literally start a war (not even joking) and she wouldn't bat an eye, but if I ever think of dating someone, it's the end of the world.

And that's exactly what happened. When dad asked me about my "boyfriend", everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

"HER WHAT?! YOUNG LADY TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHO IS THIS BASTARD THAT HAS VIOLATED YOU!" Hera yelled at the top of her lungs

"Well, now we know that she isn't a dyke" Ares said grinning. A little creepy at first but after 16 of living with him, I've gotten used to it

"His name is Percy" I was interrupted before I could say how we hadn't done anything at all

"Percy what, is he an orphan? Where did you meet him? How did Apollo know? What is his last name?" Dad bombarded me with questions

"Percy Jackson. No, he's not an orphan and I met him when we went to Barcelona in the summer. Apollo found out because he transferred to our school today and yeahhhh" I answered all of his questions. He looked at me in the eyes, but stayed silent.

"Well you better not even think of having him over" Hera said after a moment of silence

"Why not? I told him I was going to tutor him with the classes and music and stuff"

"If he's at your school then he probably won't need that tutoring" it was an excellent point that my dad made, which meant I could only nod myself and sigh a 'fine', already thinking of ways to keep my side of the bargain.

"Arty when are going to meet him?" My little sister asked, not wanting to eat a bite until I answered

"Umm Saturday at the archery competition"

"Phoebe Artemis, how many times do I have to tell you that you shouldn't be doing archery? I prohibit you from participating" the she-devil Hera intercepted

"But why not? Apollo can do it, why can't I?"

"Because it's not a lady's sport. You should be focusing only on your music and maybe rhythmic gymnastics."

"But I'm not flexible! And I have the best grades in all of school!"

"Second best" Apollo coughed, to which I threw a piece of mashed potato at him.

"Phoebe Artemis stop this instant! Young lady you are grounded! I prohibit you from participating in archery in any shape or form, from having that boy over and from hanging out with your friends!" Hera yelled

The whole table sat silently, not really knowing how to react.

"Dear that's a little extreme, she hasn't done anything wrong" my dad tried to reason, but Hera shoot him down

"No Zeus, I'm sick and tired of having her do whatever she wants! She needs discipline and this is the only way to do it"

My rage took over me. My whole life I had been this perfect "model" that they had wanted me to be. I didn't even enjoy music that much, but I still stuck to it because that's what they wanted out of me. And when I finally found something I liked, I was prohibited from doing it?! Archery is like the least dangerous sport there is! And even though the relationship with Percy is fake, knowing that this is how they would react to that kind of news didn't give me any type of hope.

"I hate this family. I wish I was never born," I stood up and began to head out, but before I could open the door, I said the sentence that I had wanted to say all my life

"I wish I lived with my real mother" I opened the door and ran out.

It was around maybe 8pm, so it was already dark out. I kept walking towards nowhere, just far away from my house.

Half an hour must've passed before I heard someone yell my name from behind me. Turning around, I saw Hermes running towards me, all sweaty and disgusting.

"Hermes? I thought you had to pick up your brother from his practice"

"Stepbrother, and I already did that. But I had track practice, gotta keep my legs moving. Anyways, what are you doing here?"

"Had a fight with my family and kinda said that I wished I lived with my mom" he had a look of shock, eyes wide and everything

"Dude, you did that?"

"I know I shouldn't have, but at the same time I wish I did. Like, did my mom abandon my brother and I because she was afraid, because she was forced, because she hated us? There must be a reason," I said, tears falling out of my eyes.

"Hey, don't be sad. Let's just sit down and talk about everything," he motioned to a bench that was on the side of the sidewalk. We both sat down, me leaning into him because I needed someone who I could cry to.

"Listen Artemis. You are the most beautiful, intelligent, and awesome girl out there. You should never be feeling this sad," he swiped a tear away "whatever you need, I'll be there for you, like I've been there before"

"Thank you so much Hermes" I hugged him with all the strength I had. Even though he was sweaty as if we lived in the Sahara, it still felt good to hug him.

"You don't have to thank me. Mind if I tell you a story?"

"Not at all" we broke off the hug, but he still kept an arm around me

"There was once this boy who's dad had run away as soon as he was born. He lived with his mother in very poor conditions until she met a very rich man. This man was so dreamy that she completely forgot about her own son, even favoring her stepson above him.

"One day he met a beautiful girl. He fell in love with her instantly, but knew she would never return his affection. So he settled for the next best thing. He became her best friend, his confidant. She talked to him and told him everything there was. She cared for him like his mother never did." I felt myself falling asleep, really wanting to listen to the story but all my tiredness overcoming me.

Third person POV

Hermes didn't even notice that Artemis had fallen asleep, so he just kept telling the story.  
"As time passed by, he noticed that she hadn't fallen in love with anyone, and his hopes rose to extraordinary levels. He began giving her gifts, writing her songs and even dressing up better. But one day, the day when he was going to confess how he felt, a boy arrived. This new boy was handsome and charming, and his heart broke when he got the news that this boy was the girls boyfriend.

"He played it off cool, but inside he was crying. He couldn't believe that after all those years, when he finally got the courage to confess, she already had someone else in her heart. That night, he saw her walking alone in the street, really unusual for someone like her. He asked her how she was feeling and his heart broke at the look in her face and the sad sound of her voice. Then, he comforted her, because even though he didn't belong to her heart, she was the only thing in his."

Hermes turned his head to his side, noticing her beautiful sleeping face. He brought his face down and kissed her cheek and then her forehead, love visible in his eyes.

"I'll always love you Artemis. I'll wait for you even if you tell me that I shouldn't, I'll still hold on to the hope that one day you'll give me a chance. I'll hold you when you feel broken, I'll laugh when you feel happy, and I'll always stay by your side. Because no matter what, you are my first and only love."

He held onto her, not ever letting her alone in the dark. Not caring if he got grounded for staying up so late. None of that mattered when Artemis was at stake.


	6. Barroque

Percy POV

All in all, I would say my first day in the school (if you could even call it that) wasn't really bad. I met some people and already got myself in a weird situation.

Artemis is really pretty, there is no denying that, and the fact that now the whole school thinks she's my girlfriend is really good...or bad. Every guy will hate me now and the girls will love me, not that I really care.

On the positive side, I'll get tutoring from a music genius, and a genius overall. It is a well-known fact all around the music industry that the Galanis twins are going to be the next big things, that they'll revolutionize music as we know it. Apollo Galanis is thought to be the next Michael Jackson and Artemis Galanis will be even more important than Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift combined. So imagine my excitement when Artemis told me she was going to tutor me.

It was now around 10 pm and I was pretty tired, but I couldn't sleep at all because of how nervous I was for my actual first day. I mean, I'm going to be surrounded by music geniuses and overachievers, and I'm the exact opposite of that.

The long black pants, white shirt and red tie from my uniform were all ready. Curiously, part of the uniform is to have different types of socks for every day (five days if the week), which are supposed to represent you or something like that. Tomorrow's socks have fishes were drawn on them, as well as algae and water. I really love the water, sorry if I didn't say that before. I would love to be a marine biologist, but there are two main problems.

1\. I'm not smart  
2\. My dad would kill me if I didn't go into a music path

So there's that.

Due to my boredom, I began to check if I could find anybody from school on Instagram.

The first one I found was Artemis. She had literally 500K followers and around 100 posts, much more than what I have. Most of her post are of her hanging out in vacation, a couple of her hanging out and others of her playing an instrument. I was really fascinated with her page, being aesthetic and all, but not in a bitchy or VSCO type.

I also found Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Eros. But what really shocked me was a post from Eros, who had him walking towards Artemis and a guy. The guy had black hair and blue eyes, a swimmers build and a handsome face. The caption was "Orion, you were an awesome friend to everyone. We will all miss you so much, gone way too soon. We all love you and there is never going to be anyone who can come even close to you and your coolness."

So that was Orion, and from the look of it, he was friends with the group. It also seemed like he was a really close friend with Artemis like they were something more than friends.

I wouldn't say I got jealous of a dead guy, but I felt uncomfortable. Here was a guy that had the affection of one of the most wanted girls in all of the country (slight exaggeration), and even though I was in a fake relationship with her, I knew there was never going to be real feelings.

Suddenly, around 100 follow requests appeared on my page. I checked who the people were, and a bunch of kids I vaguely saw in school were amongst them, along with a couple of Magcon kids. Do you remember Magcon? When Jacob Sartorius, Cameron Dallas, Johnny Orlando sold tickets for hormonal teenage girls to see them? Damn what a weird time.

Anyways, I followed all of them back and no kidding, around 15 girls slid into my DMs. I didn't even open them, much less replied to any of them because then people might think I was cheating on Artemis.

After all that I checked the time, and only half an hour seemed to have passed. I got really bored so I just decided to go and write a song. And I mean just the lyrics, the melody would come to me after.

I was sitting down on my desk, thinking about inspiration for the song when suddenly something came. My hand seemed to move on its own, so fast that it looked as if it had a mind of its own. After five minutes, the lyrics were complete, and they read this:

_You're so pretty, I want you_  
_You're so nice, I want you_  
_I usually don't look at girls_  
_but why am I acting this way, like a fool?_

_Every single day, I only think of you_  
_Even when I close my eyes, I only think of you_  
_Each time I see you, my heart trembles_  
_and I can't breathe_

_Baby, I wish it was me, I wish it was so_  
_Lonely lonely oh my love_  
_I wish your love was me_  
_uh uh uh uh uh uh_  
_Baby, I wish it was me, I wish it was so_  
_Lonely lonely oh, love me_  
_I don't wanna be alone anymore_  
_uh uh uh I love you_

_Even when I'm meeting someone else, I only see you_  
_Even when I'm thinking about something else, I only see you_  
_Even when I see someone else, I have no interest_  
_Why am I acting this way, like a fool?_

_I guess it's love – I can't catch a wink of sleep_  
_I guess I love you – I keep thinking of you_  
_When I meet you,_  
_I get happy like a kid_

_Baby, I wish it was me, I wish it was so_  
_Lonely lonely oh my love_  
_I wish your love was me_  
_uh uh uh uh uh uh_  
_Baby, I wish it was me, I wish it was so_  
_Lonely lonely oh, love me_  
_I don't wanna be alone anymore_  
_uh uh uh I love you_

_I love you, love me – believe me, believe me_  
_I can do anything for you uh uh uh_  
_No matter how much you try to find someone special_  
_No matter how much you try to find someone like me, there won't be anyone else_

_Can you see my heart? Can you hear my heart?_  
_Please accept my pure love oh_  
_I'm here, waiting and waiting for you_  
_I only love you alone_

_Baby, I wish it was you, I wish it was so_  
_Love me love me, oh look at me_  
_I wish my other half was you_  
_uh uh uh uh uh uh_  
_Baby, I wish it was you, I wish it was so_  
_Love me love me, oh I love you_  
_If it's not you, I don't wanna be in love_  
_uh uh uh I love you_

_Baby, I wish it was me, I wish it was so_  
_Lonely lonely oh, love me_  
_I don't wanna be alone anymore_  
_uh uh uh I love you_

I had no idea where those lyrics came from. Are they cheesy? Extremely  
Do I have a special someone? Not really  
So why are they the way they are? Are they some hidden feelings? Was I thinking of another person?

And just with overthinking that I fell asleep, feeling confused over all my feelings.


	7. Soul

Artemis POV

It was Saturday and guess where I was...

That's right, the archery competition. No, I wasn't here to compete myself, but rather my brother dragged me here because he hates me with all his life and therefore loves to torture me.

"I might lose this one just to make you mad. Here I am, been given the opportunity to shine, while you are there thinking about your man" my brother teased me

"Who?" I replied completely forgetting the whole fake relationship thing.

"Your boyfriend, the retard Percy Jackson who nobody knows how he got into the school so late and with such a reputation."

"He's not a retard, he's just not the smartest tool in the shed. Plus, I really enjoy being with him,"

You see, this last four days in school have been pretty average overall. Sure, I had to walk hand in hand with Percy and share a couple of kisses with him, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I tutored him after school at the late-night library, and even though only four days have passed, I'm confident I've seen progress.

Besides, he was a pretty funny person. Spending time with him didn't even bother me, it just quickly became part of my routine. The weird part in all of it tho was when we were in public, as I'm not a person who is used to showing that much 'affection' to another person.

I walked next to my brother towards the registration when I heard someone yell my name from behind me.

"Artemis! Arty! Arty! Come over here!"

It was Percy, waving me over with an excited look on his face.

"I gotta go see what he wants. Don't go around to wander by yourself" I told Apollo, not wanting him to get lost like last time

"Yeah yeah whatever, you're not my mom"

"But I am your older sister"

"No, you aren't"

"I'm not even going to argue with you. Just stay put"

I walked towards Percy, where I could see him with a grin that really made me uncomfortable.

"Hi, Arty!" Percy greeted me happily

"Hey. Why are you here?" I asked him. He never told me he was coming here, in fact, I remember him telling me he was the worst shot in history.

"Guess who's participating in the competition" my face went pale as Wednesday in the Addams Family. I could not believe he did that.

"You are going to kill someone,"

"No, I meant you are going to participate"

"What? Didn't I tell you I was banned by my parents?"

"Yes, but here's what I did. I paid the person in charge and she said you would be able to perform anonymously. So when it's your turn to shoot you can do it in your own private range, inside this place of course) and then evidence the score. You would need to be in the men's division though, I couldn't bargain that. Oh, and I bought you a bow, I don't know if it's good enough but I hope is something" I hugged him tighter than I knew possible

"Trust me it's enough. Thank you so much. You didn't have to go through all that"

"It really was no problem. Now stretch, the competition starts in 20 minutes," he kissed me and then told me in the ear "sorry, lots of people around here" I nodded my head and ran to a little field close to the main table.

As I stretched my back, I saw a little blonde figure running towards me at great speeds. Then after five seconds, I could recognize the figure as Hermes.

"Artemis quick I planned this out. Ok, so I got my clothes in the back seat and my bow and arrows. I also have a cap so nobody can recognize you, you don't have to worry about a thing. I stayed up all night doing this."

"Wait time out" I did a T with my hands "What did you plan?"

"Do you remember how you told me that you weren't allowed to compete? Well, I've been thinking about that ever since and I got a plan! I'll just register myself as 'Marcus Veloz', my 'twin brother' and then you would dress up as me. I have my long sleeve shirt and jeans so nobody can see that you're skinnier than me and I have a wig that I dyed it to be my same hair color. Plus some sunglasses plus a cap! Now come on! We don't have much time" he grabbed my wrist and tried to pull me, but I stayed put

"Oh my god Hermes, you didn't have to go through all that. Percy already paid the coordinator and I'm allowed to compete anonymously. Thank you so much tho, you're the best friend anyone could ever ask for" I hugged him feeling bad about all of this

"He paid? Just like that?" He muttered

"Yeah. I'm sorry Hermes. Do you want to stay and watch? You won't be able to see me but you can see Apollo." He pulled away from the hug, trying to hide his face, but I could see that he had red eyes.

"Are you ok?" I asked him

"I'm fine. I have some things to do anyways. Good luck Artemis," He

"Thank you" he turned around and started to walk away. I felt bad for him going through all that effort for nothing, but there's wasn't anything I could do about it. I mean, Percy had already paid and everything.

I sensed someone coming towards me from behind so I turned around.

"I still can't catch you off guard right?" Percy asked me

"Never can and never will"

"I will someday. Anyways, it's already time. Let's go." He put his arm around my neck and began to walk

"I hate when you do this"

"It makes us seem like a couple. Is that not what you want?"

"Yeah but, forget it"

We walked towards where the judge was giving the rules. There were around 50 competitors of all ages, but only around 10 competitors for each division. Basically, the rules were that each person would play one round and that was it (really unusual for an archery competition but go off) and all that no reporting false scores and stuff. Nothing new.

"Let's go to your special range," Percy said as he dragged me towards a long tent. Once inside I saw that the tent itself was the range.

"The excuse everyone will hear is that you're allergic to the sun, but the referee and us know it's because it's anonymous. Now get ready to rumble" he stood at the side of the tent, where the 'spectator' area was. The judge entered and greeted us.

"You may commence now Mrs. Galanis- I mean anonymous person"

I readied my bow, quiver feeling light. The bow itself wasn't cheap, I could tell that. The string was pretty strong compared to others I've used and the weight seemed to be perfect for me. I pulled back the string, aiming towards the center of the target. Breathing three exhalations, and thinking only about the target, I let the arrow go. It went at incredible speeds, embedding itself in the very point that is the center of the bullseye.

"Ten points," the judge said.  
I recreated that same thing three times for a set, and I did five sets. So in total, I did that 15 times and I got 150 points. Percy was cheering for me and I just laughed at his goofy self.

"Very impressive. Stay here while I check with the others, but I'm almost sure you won" the judge said as he walked out of the tent. Percy went towards me but stayed at some distance, thankfully.

"I knew you were good but I didn't know you were this good. So you're a prodigy at music and archery? How is that even possible? You could easily win an Olympic medal"

"My parents would never let me. They want me to be a musician. Even if I don't like it that much. I mean, I do like music, who doesn't. But at the same time, I wish I could do archery, it's really my passion" I explained to him. He stood there contemplating when he got an idea.

"You should practice at my house. It's not that big but we have a really big backyard where I could set up a target. And it's connected to the woods so we could go hunting or just shooting trees. And when I saw 'we' I mean you because I would kill one of us if I tried shooting"

"But when would we do that?"

"We can use my tutoring time. I think I'm grasping everything pretty well for now so we can just use that time. And if your parents ever get suspicious, just tell them you were composing. I wrote a song but the melody still isn't done, so when I finish it you can use it as evidence that you were composing."

"And here I was saying you were stupid. I like that idea, let's go for it"

The judge entered the tent with a surprised look.

"Well sure looks like the Galanis are prodigies at everything. Apollo also scored 150 points. What we do in this case is that you each go once and, as soon as one of you scores lower than the other, you lose"

"Sounds doable. Can I start now?"

"Please do"

And so I did my routine, shot my arrow and got a 10. I did that literally 17 times, the walkie-talkie saying that Apollo also got 10's. In the last one, I got a 10, but the person in the walkie talkie said that Apollo got a very close nine.

"I won," I said not believing what just happened

"You won!" Percy came over and hugged me.

"Congratulations Artemis. Now let's go to the ceremony. You won't be required to go up, but someone needs to claim your prize."

"I can do that. Just say that the person had some things to do and had to leave early, that I will be taking his prize in his place."

"Perfect now let's go outside."

We went outside where a bunch of people were being gathered. I saw that Apollo was looking very mad, so I went towards him.

"Where the hell have you been Artemis?! If you would've been here I wouldn't have been distracted with Aphrodite and I wouldn't have lost!"

"I was with Percy"

"How dare you? I'm telling Hera"

"Not unless you want me to tell her what happened between you and Daphne" he gasped and glared at me

"You wouldn't dare"

"Oh but I would. Now shut up and be happy you got a prize." I said ending the conversation

We had to wait for all the categories to finish up, which seemed really long and unnecessary.

"Now, for the Boys 17 & under. Third place is Ivan Lee" everyone clapped at the average looking kid with black hair.

"Second place, and with an outstanding 169 points, Apollo Galanis" Apollo left my side and went forward to stand in the podium and claim his trophy. I clapped really hard and cheered for him, as he is my brother after all.

"And first place. The competitor had some personal issues and he is not able to come and pick his prize. So, Perseus Jackson, please come forward to claim it in his place." Percy went to the podium and grabbed the trophy, all while looking at me and Apollo glaring at him.

"Thank you all for participating and congratulations to all of the participants who won"

"Artemis lets go, I want froyo and Olive Garden," Apollo said

"Wait, let me say goodbye" I ran towards Percy and hugged him

"Thank you so much. I'll definitely do what you suggested"

"It was no problem. Hey, I have a swimming competition tomorrow, do you want to come? It's at the Phelps Natatorium at 9 am"

"Artemis hurry up!" I heard my brother yell from behind me. I pecked Percy on the lips and replied

"I'll meet you there"


	8. R&B

Artemis POV

Something weird was happening to me. Five days ago I would've killed any guy who even came close to me (with a few exceptions) but now I voluntarily kissed Percy. Percy Jackson. Butterflies live longer than how long we've known each other.

I don't like him or anything, he's merely a friend. A friend who helps me a lot and is very good looking, a friend who I can kiss, a friend who-

"Artemis!" Apollo yelled at me, getting me out of my trance. We were currently sitting at Olive Garden with the waiter at my side.

"Sorry"

"Well good afternoon, my name is Caleb and I'll be your waiter for the evening. Are you all ready to order or should I give you a few minutes?" He asked us kindly

"We're ready. I'll have the Chicken Parmesan and the beautiful young lady in front of me will be having spaghetti and meatballs"

"Excellent. Now, would you like soup or salad?"

"Yes" Apollo replied, to which I burst out laughing.

"What?" He asked me, not noticing his mistake

"He asked what you wanted and you said yes"

"Oh oops. I'll have the gnocchi soup please,"

"And I'll have the same."

"Alright. And to drink, what would you like?" The waiter asked us

"Both of us will have a raspberry lemonade. Thank you" I said, handing him the menu.

"I'll be bringing your drinks on shortly"

Apollo stared at me, like he was trying to get me to say something. It was like that for about two minutes and I grew tired of him.

"If you have something to tell me, do so"

"Artemis, answer me this please. Remember that I will know if you're lying"

"What is it"

Before he could ask, our waiter Caleb came with the drinks.

"I hope you guys have fun on your date" I chocked on my lemonade and began to cough. Apollo face turned red in a violent flush of embarrassment.

"Ew no, we're siblings. And this isn't Alabama or Kentucky or Ancient Greece"

"Oh sorry. Are you ok?" The waiter came towards me as I was still coughing and began to pat my back. Eventually it eased me and I could breathe normally again. "There we go. Relax"

"Thank you" I thanked him

"No problem at all" he winked at me and I felt him leaving something on my lap. When he went away, I reached into my lap and got a little paper with a message.

"I have to go to the bathroom, excuse me" I told Apollo, quickly reaching towards the end of the passage to the right (where all bathrooms are located). I entered and it seemed pretty clean, with some good ol' Katy Perry blasting through the speakers.

I opened the paper, curious over what it said. It read:

_Caleb Woods_

_929-496-9420_

_Text me :)_

Well that's weird. Ever since I started 'going out' with Percy, many other guys have begun to notice me. Is it because there's something different about me or is it because I'm just now opening my eyes into the world?

Anyways I saved the contact information on my phone and headed back to the table. Apollo was sitting alone, stuffing two bread sticks into his mouth at the same time.

"You're gay" I told him.

"I'm gay for you"

"Ew incest" he laughed and almost chocked, but it seemed as if he had experience in this type of situation

The rest of the meal went on normally, me making fun of the fact that he lost, him defending himself by saying that he was distracted, so on and so forth.

It wasn't long until it was night and I got a call from one of my best friends, Athena.

Athena was the smartest blonde ever to live, probably ever. She had weird grey eyes, but then again, who am I to judge? And just as every nerd in existence, she was the Nation champion in chess.

"Hey Artemis, how's it going?"

"Nothing much, how about you?"

"Starting the project" typical Athena, starting a project we have not been assigned yet

"What project?"

"Well, a little birdie told me that, in order to graduate we have to make a song, write it's meaning, how the theory relates to the emotions it's trying to conceive, and bonus points if it's done in another language"

"What kind of try hard would choose to do it in another langua-"

"So I chose Italian because it's the closest thing to latin while it also has a lot of fluidity. Add to that the fact that no word in Italian finishes in a consonant, it's a rhyming heaven" Athena interrupted me

"Well, you already have part of your project done"

"Yeah. Hey, you doing anything tomorrow?"

"I'm going to watch Percy at his swimming competition," I said. There was a silence that followed, then a mutter "did you say something?"

"Nothing, I just had a theory but it seems to be false"

"What theory?"

"I thought that you were faking a relationship with him so you could annoy Apollo and make someone jealous. But now that you're spending time with him, it just seems to be more real" damn she was good

"Yeah we're real" I said laughing a little. Suddenly, something Athena said didn't make much sense when I remembered it "you said that you thought it was fake just so we could annoy Apollo and to make someone jealous, but you implied that the jealous person would be someone else. Who were you talking about?"

"Nobody!" She quickly replied "I gotta go sleep. Talk to you later girlfriend"

"That sassy thing really doesn't suit you"

"Shut up. Bye"

"Bye" I hung up the phone. Laying on my bed I began to wonder on two things.

First of all, who is this other person? Is it someone who likes me? Or was it meant as a 'I'm ugly and still got a hot boyfriend' type of jealousy?

And secondly, and correlated to that last sentence, why am I focusing so much on Percy? He's just a normal guy, a normal stupid guy*. And why am I hanging out so much with him? I almost never hang out with boys, but here I was coming tomorrow to his competition. What is happening to me? Why am I changing so much?


	9. Salsa

Percy POV

It has been three months since I started in OMC, three months since I moved away from Manhattan, and three months since I started fake dating Artemis. Ever since then, I've been getting closer to Artemis to the point that I actually like her. She saw my competitions, she practiced archery in my backyard and everything was going well.

Of course, it is an understatement to say that I'm, first of all a dumbass, and second of all a moron. So because of this, the only plausible thing to do in my mind was to break up the relationship with Artemis. I mean, she didn't feel anything towards me, yet I fell totally in love with her. Whatever she said made total sense to me, whatever she asked of me I did and I thought of many ways to spend the most amount of time with her.

So my school of reasoning was this: I 'break up with her' and tell her I love a girl, when she asks me who it is I tell her and hopefully I won't have ruined a friendship.

Now I stayed up all night planning on the exact words I would say, which is a really stupid thing to do. But then again, I'm stupid so it was normal that I did that.

Before you judge me I just want to say that, for the record, I regret everything that happened today.

"Hey Artemis, could I talk to you for a second?" I asked her while she was talking to Athena, Aphrodite, and Persephone.

"Yeah sure Percy. What's up?" She asked me

"Umm, could we talk alone please?" I said while glancing sideways to her friends. Athena, the blonde one, really hated me for some reason, while Aphrodite was normal with me.

"Oh ok. I'll be back" she told her friends, grabbed my hand and walked us outside.

It wasn't a beautiful day, like if the skies knew that something bad was going to happen. The sky was grey but not with clouds, it just seemed really dirty. The sun didn't shine bright, but it wasn't cold. It was a really weird atmosphere.

"So, Artemis, here's the thing. I think we should break up" I dropped the bomb. Artemis stared at me with wide eyes

"W-what? W-w-why?" She stuttered

"Well I kinda have feelings for this girl and you said that if I ever happened I could break this up."

"Oh..right." She was looking at the ground, and I noticed that she tears in her eyes.

Now this next part is where I really, honestly, fucked it up. I regret saying this more than I regret being born.

You see, as I said earlier, part of my plan was her asking me who I liked and then I would tell her that I liked her and we would live happily ever after. But things weren't going according to plan.

"Are you going to ask me who I like?" I asked her, instantly regretting ever having a mouth.

"Why would I do that?" She asked me, her voice breaking a little. "Do you even think about maybe easing this a little bit? I was happy today and then you just drop this bomb on me?"

"Are you ok?" I asked her, worried that she was taking this harder than I expected.

"Yeah I'm fine. I don't even know why I'm acting this way, it was a fake relationship anyways." She wiped her teardrops with my blue hoodie that she wore all the time.

"But-"

"I gotta go. See you at the party tonight" she speed walked away from me, leaving my idiot self standing there like...well me.

Now you may be thinking 'yo Percy, why didn't you just tell her that you liked her instead of breaking up with her?' or 'um Percy, you know that you were literally in a relationship with her and this was all really unnecessary' well believe me, I know that now. But now is a little bit too late.

That afternoon passed so slow that I thought I was going to die. The news spread like wildfire. Like they say 'small town, giant hell', except that in this case it's a small school, not town.

I tried calling Artemis and apologize, but she didn't pick up any of my calls. I texted her and she left me on read. No matter what I did, she just wasn't having it. And with good reason.

I got ready for the party at Artemis and Apollo's house. Their parents and siblings were away for the week on vacation, but because of school, they couldn't go always with them. So Apollo decided to throw a party, all the school was invited, and we all had a plus one. I didn't invite anybody, but once I got there I quickly figured out that everybody else did.

There were around 200 people in the house and the music was blasting out the speakers. I went in and it was a pretty normal party overall. You had your two beerpong tables, the open bar in the kitchen, your pizza in the living room, the people dancing and the people making out in any sitting area available. I quickly noticed that Artemis was playing beerpong with a girl from our class called Jane, against Hermes and Dionysus.

I went to the table and I think Artemis didn't notice me, or maybe she was ignoring me.

"How are you guys losing?" I put my arm around Dionysus, who shook it off

"Artemis doesn't miss a single shot! I mean, she's beginning to miss because she has been drinking her and Jane's beer because Jane can't drink. But still! The only thing keeping us at bay is that I never get drunk" he said the last part proudly

"And that means you miss all the fun" Hermes said while making his shot, making both teams have only two cups left.

Next shot only Artemis made it and Hermes drank that cup. So the score was now 1-2.

"Don't worry Hermes. I'm sober, look at me make this shot." And the motherfucker made the shot. Now it was only 1-1 with Hermes still on turn. Hermes threw his ball to the remaining cup and it hit the cup.

The rules of beerpong are simple but complicated. There's this thing that, if a ball doesn't go in a cup, but it returns to you again (I don't know how to explain it very well) and you catch the ball before the other person, you get to redo that shot but with a trick. You could say 'leftie' and throw the shot with the left hand, or the other person can say something really extravagant first and you have to do that.

So in this case Hermes was fast enough to grab the ping pong ball, but not before Artemis said "Sitting down backwards leftie".

I've never even heard someone do a shot in that position, it seemed impossible even. Hermes sat down, weirdly confident about his position.

"They call me Hermes clutch" and then as if in slow motion, the ball left his hand, did a weird curve in the air, and effortlessly went in the cup.

"Fuck this day" Artemis yelled

"You did it!" Dionysus hugged Hermes and laughed. I congratulated the team and was about to go and talk to Artemis, but she was gone by then.

I tried to look for her in the dance floor, which incredibly took me fifteen minutes or so. Next thing I know, Aphrodite comes running and yells the words that I didn't even know I would ever hear

"Artemis and Hermes are making out!"

The lot of us went outside to see the event with our own two eyes, just to check if it was true or not. When we got outside, we saw the two of them making out...intensively may I add.

And just like that, I knew what the word heartbreak meant.


	10. Trap

Artemis POV

"Ugh" I said while I tried to wake up. My head felt like it was going to explode and my stomach felt like it was going to expulse. I had almost no memories of last night, just remember playing beer pong. After that, my memory is blank.

I tried to stand up, but every time I made pressure on my ankle it hurt a lot. Finally, about ten minutes later, I managed to compose myself and go downstairs to eat breakfast.

"Well the little princess finally woke up. How are you feeling?" Apollo asked me as I walked down the stairs. I stopped, glared at and ignored him. I kept walking, got orange juice and sat down opposite of him.

"What happened yesterday?" I asked him while he just grinned

"There was a party"

"No shit Sherlock. But what happened in the party?" He dared to laugh. And not the normal light laugh, no, he was freaking rolling on the ground and screaming.

"Ah, no screaming, no screaming" I told him as my head was literally killing me.

"Ha ha sorry. Well, you played beer pong and lost. Twice"

"I swear if you don't tell me the part I'm waiting for I'm going to kill you as soon as this hangover passed"

"Ok ok, so after that beer pong I saw that you went to make yourself a drink. After that you cheered the next beer pong game and then sat down right beside the beer pong table. I think I saw you vaping a little, but I'm not sure.

So you were sitting there next to Hermes and I left. From what I heard, you guys were talking about your breakup and then about Biology, but soon enough you were making out-" I spit my orange juice

"I What?!"

"You haven't heard the best part yet so calm down. So you guys were making out and almost going at it. I don't know the details because it was really gross for me, but you can ask Aphrodite. After you made out, he told you something in you ear and you went upstairs." I paled at the thought of...

"You guys didn't do anything, I know. Before Hermes could even go up the stairs, Percy pulled him down and they fought. After ten minutes I think, you came down and told Percy off and went to Hermes side. There's a video if you want to see."

"There's a video?"

"Yeah, it's on everyone's Snapchat, you want to see?" I nodded my head with anticipation. Apollo brought out his iPhone and checked his photo library. He clicked on a three minute video, but before he played it, he shut off his phone. "I just remembered! I-somebody who is certainly not me posted it on YouTube. We can watch it on the TV. Come on!"

He grabbed my arm and dragged me to the living room.

"Why would you post it on YouTube?" I asked while he prepared everything

"So I can show it to your children in two years"

"I'm not going to be a teen mom"

"That's what I thought, but after yesterday I'm not so sure anymore. Now look at the video" he clicked the 'play' button and grinned.

The video began with Percy pulling down Hermes from the stairs. Hermes got up and pushed Percy in a threateningly manner.

"What the hell dude? Why'd you pull me?!"

"Artemis is drunk. Don't do anything." Percy told him

"So am I. And why do you care? You broke her heart today and now won't let her move on? What's wrong with you?! Are you so selfish that you just want her to be with you after you hurt her?" Hermes said, his voice getting louder with each word he said

"Just because I broke up with her doesn't mean I still don't care for her"

"Well I'm sorry for your feelings but I cannot wait for you to hurt her again you selfish bigheaded asshole" Hermes poked Percy's chest with each word. At the last one, Percy's mad face morphed into one of rage and punched Hermes in the eye.

Hermes fell into the floor, a circle of people forming behind him and Percy. He quickly got up and punched Percy in the left eye and then threw a punch at his ribcage. The fight went on for a little over a minute, both guys being equal in their fight. Percy was strong, but Hermes was faster; Percy was experienced, but Hermes was cunning.

Then, someone came walking down the stairs...well more like tumbling down. Apollo shook my arm in excitement.

"Watch this, it's the best part" he said grinning

Well the figure who came down the stairs was me, and just a tad drunk. I ran towards the fight and got in between both of them, my arms extended so they wouldn't go after each other.

"Stop what you're doing right now!" I yelled at Percy

"He's also at fault" he defended himself

"Why are you fighting?"

"Cause he wants to control you and I said you didn't belong to him" Hermes said from my right side.

"Is that true?"

"N-not really, I just-"

"You just what?" I asked him harshly

"I want to make sure you're good"

"You know what Percy? At the beginning you were a really nice guy. I loved hanging out with you, I loved us. But then all of the sudden you just took everything away from me, not even thinking of the consequences it was going to have. And then you have the nerve to ask me to ask you about who you like now?! What the fuck?! Do you have any human decency?! And now when there's actually someone who is interested in me, unlike you may I add, you have to screw it up?! Get out of my house please. If I see you trying to do anything like what you did today, you can say goodbye to your fucking dick" I yelled at Percy. Then, I grabbed Hermes and led us away from the scene, the flock of people parting like the Red Sea.

"Arty" Percy muttered, but it seemed like I didn't hear him as I just kept walking away.

The video ended and a lot of Peppa Pig appeared on the watch next page of my brother.

"Peppa, what are you doin on my YouTube?" Apollo said. "Well, watcha think?"

"That doesn't answer why my ankle hurts"

"What? Let me take a look" Apollo said in his doctor mode. That was the only mode in which he is serious, so I knew not to joke when he was like that. "It's a little swollen, you must've twisted it somehow. Do you remember when that could've been?" I stood thinking about when that could've happened, but nothing came to mind.

"I gotta go talk to him" my brother nodded and left to his room.

I ran to mine with great pain, put on some casual clothes and headed out to his house. I ran faster than I had ever before, cut through some woods, and arrived in front of the house.

I rang the doorbell three times, waiting for someone to answer the door. Couple of minutes passed and nobody had opened the door. I was about to leave when suddenly somebody opened the door.

"Artemis?"


	11. Tango

"Artemis?"

"Hi Oscar, is Hermes home?" I asked Hermes step-brother

"I think. I can ask my mom if you want"

"If it's no problem-"

"MOOOOOOM ARTEMIS IS HERE TO SEE HERMES" the little kid (who's around 12 years old, so he's little for me) yelled at the top of his lungs.

I heard the steps of someone rapidly coming towards the door.

"Artemis! Nice to see you dear. Oscar said you wanted to see Hermes?" Hermes mother asked me. She was around 5'5 with blonde hair and brown eyes, with a lot of attitude. I think she's from a Latino country...not sure if Cuba, Argentina or Puerto Rico, but she also has a Korean side. All I know is that she and Hermes speak Spanish in between them, but she also taught Hermes Korean so he's fluent in three languages.

"Hi Mrs. Harper, yes I came here to see Hermes. I have to talk to him about something from school." You might be confused on why her last name isn't the same as Hermes. I was too before, but it turns out it's one of the reasons why Hermes resents her so much. Originally her name was Maia Veloz, but after marrying her now husband, she changed her last name. But what makes Hermes mad is the fact that, in their culture, women don't change their last name when they marry, but his mom did because she wanted to appeal to her husband.

"Oh perfect, he's finally seeking help. Follow me, I'll show you to where he is" we walked through their house, which seemed like a labyrinth. Seriously, so many works of art and white walls take a toll on you.

"Hermes come out of there" his mother knocked on the door.

"Estoy trabajando" Hermes said from inside the room. His mother sighed and I instantly knew they were going to fight.

"¡Hermes abre la puerta ahora mismo o te voy a restrellar los dientes esos de mierda que tienes contra la pared!"

"Déjame en paz carajo"

"Aigo, hasta aquí llegamos. Que niño más malagradecido tengo yo. Vamos a abrir la puerta está a la mala entonces" I had no idea what she was saying, I just stood there awkwardly waiting for Hermes to open the door.

His mom literally kicked the door open and Hermes just sat there in front of his computer.

"¿Mijo que tú haces? ¿¡No sabes que cuando te digo que abras tu abres la puerta?!" Hermes didn't reply "are you going to answer me?"

"Wel-" Hermes began to say but he was shut down by his mother screaming at him

"Don't talk back to me!" His mom screamed and I was honestly scared. Imagine the awful combination of a Latino mom who hits you nonstop and you're her slave, with a korean mom who hits you and says you gotta have all A's. Well, that was Hermes mom.

"Sorry. Oh hey Artemis" he waved at me, completely forgetting about him and his mom fighting.

"Right, Artemis is here, but don't think this is over. Now have fun. Compórtate Hermes" his mom said as she left

"Si Mami" his mom shut the door.

Hermes stared at me and then smiled.

"I'm actually glad you came here. I was actually writting the song for the project. Do you want to hear what I have so far?"

"Sure!"

"Great, let me just play the instrumental part. You know it's literally impossible to play the trumpet, piano and the congas all at the same time. So I have recorded the trumpet and the congas, but the rest is live. You ready to hear if?"

"I'm always ready"

"Oh, it's also in Spanish"

"Bruh, I can't understand spanish. Why didn't you make it in English like a normal person?"

"Three reasons mainly." He put three fingers up "first of all, we have a bonus if we don't do it in english. Second, it's salsa and salsa is always in spanish. Third, you won't understand it so it's all better for everyone. Now sit down and relax while I play this masterpiece."

He clicked play and trumpets started playing. Now I'm not going to bore you with a written description of music, but it was really danceable and seemed like a song with a meaning. At the end I clapped and Hermes was drenched in sweat.

"Thank you, you want a copy of it?" He asked me

"Yes of course! Thank you Hermes"

"Anything for you Artemis" he smiled "did you have something to talk to me about?"

I had almost completely forgotten about the reason I had went all this way to talk.

"Yeah. Umm, yesterday at the party. Did we..umm..did anything..like"

"We made out but that was it. I fought Percy, you healed me and brought me home and then went back" I blushed and couldn't meet his eyes

"Oh, by any chance did I twist my ankle?" I asked him as that was the only question that was left unanswered after everything

"Not that I recall. Why? Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine"

"Good" he came closer to me, I instinctively backing away slightly "listen Artemis, I'm glad you came by. I actually need to tell you something, concerning yesterday. When-" my phone began to ring loudly, interrupting Hermes mid-sentence.

"Great timing Apollo, do you mind?" I answered the phone

"ARTEMIS COME TO THE MALL ASAP" Apollo yelled through the phone

"Why?"

"JUST COME QUICKLY BEFORE THEY LEAVE!"

"Alright I'm going" I hung up the phone and faced Hermes. "Sorry about that, do you want to come to the mall now? I have to go now"

"It's fine, I gotta do other stuff anyways. I'll send you the song tonight at the latest."

"Thank you so much! Bye!" I headed out the room and bid my farewell to Hermes bipolar family.

It took me around five minutes to arrive at the mall, and when I did I was immediately greeted by Apollo.

"Finally, hurry up before they go!" He grabbed me hand and ran through a bunch of people, me following behind.

Right by the center of the mall stood the two most important people in modern music. The first one is the owner of basically everything relating to music, and the second one is the most influential musician of the decade, daughter of one of the most influential musicians of all time.

"Artemis, this is Poseidon Kalivas and Leto Fares"


	12. Reggae

Percy POV

Yesterday had been a mess. Everything had gone wrong. I'm going to spare you the same repetitive speech of every book, but you should know by now that I was in a little depression, the one that every highschooler nowadays has. I'm a late bloomer seems.

Just like the last drop of water before a glass of water overfloods, a text of the person I wanted to talk to the least appeared.

_I'm at Orange Plaza, come on over. There's someone I want you to meet. _My dear ol' dad texted me. I rarely talked to him, only on the weekends and when I came over to his overgrown mancave.

I didn't reply, he didn't deserve such respect. Instead, I just put on some grey sweatpants and a hoodie, the clothes that literally say 'I don't care about you to groom myself but I still care about my appearance'. Perfect for this occasion.

"Mom I'm heading out" I yelled as I grabbed the keys to the Prius.

"Be home by 8 pm or send me a text" she yelled from the kitchen.

I drove for 20 minutes as the traffic wasn't that packed. But then again, it's Saturday; traffic isn't supposed to be hard on a Saturday.

Anyways, I entered the mall and it was PACKED. I mean yeah, it's Saturday so people enjoy going shopping and unnecessarily spending money, but still. I instantly knew that something else was at work here.

I kept walking, making my way through the sea of people who weren't even walking. Some baby boomers literally stood in the middle of the place looking at the worst social media: facebook. Judge all you want, but at least our generation doesn't stand in the middle and start typing, we are multitaskers.

"Percy! So nice to see you" my dad seemed to just appear out of nowhere. He gave me a really tight hug, which I didn't return fully

"Why are you here?" I asked him

"What? Can't I visit my favorite son?"

"Stop with that. Why are you here?" he sighed

"One of our singers wanted to see two people very important to her, so I had to come along. But I also wanted to see you Percy"

"Save that for Tyson or another brother of mine who still believes your crap" I turned away but he grabbed my arm. He started pulling me with all his mighty force "Let me go"

He let go only once we were in front of three people, one of them who I really wish I didn't have to see today.

In front of me stood Artemis, Apollo, and Leto Fares. When they stood side by side, it was really hard not to see the similarities between the twins and this singer. Leto had Artemis posture but Apollo's smile, a combination of both Artemis and Apollo's hair and even her nose seemed to be identical to that of Artemis. It was weird, it was as if two mini versions of Leto stood by her side.

"I'm back and with my son. Leto, this is the well known Percy Jackson i.e. Kalivas. Percy, this is Leto Fares, and next to her are the twins Phoebus and Phoebe Galanis, who are extremely talented I must admit"

"Actually we've met before," Apollo told my dad "We go to the same school"

"Oh fantastic news! This actually makes everything much easier. Do any of you mind if we go to eat dinner while we discuss some business?" my dad asked, not really expecting a reply

"I do," I told my father, but he didn't pay any attention to that

"Everyone follow me to my car. I made reservations for a restaurant. I hope everyone likes Chinese food" Typical of my father, already making reservations for plans that are not even made yet.

Each of us followed my dad into the valet. A black Lincoln pulled out in front of us and the valet guy gave my dad the keys.

"Thank you boy," he said giving the guy a $500 tip

"Thank you sir!"

Inside the car, there were only five seats, and yeah there were five of us. The two adults sat on the front of course so that only left three seats for the rest of us. Under other circumstances, I wouldn't even have bothered that we had to seat very close to each other...but this was Artemis. And because she is the tinniest of us it is only logical that she goes in the middle.

Apollo entered first, making a whole mess while entering a normal car.

"Ladies first," I told Artemis

"Bitches last," she said as she boarded. Well, guess who's still mad.

The way to the restaurant was the single most awkward thing in the history of the Americas, maybe even the world. My dad was literally talking about how he thought of giving me hormones because I was 4'9 in seventh grade and how he thought I was gay for a great portion of my life.

"I can honestly see it. It wouldn't surprise me if you came out" Artemis said

"I am not gay!"

"No need to yell. There is nothing wrong with being gay, or are you homophobic?" she got me cornered

"I'm not homophobic, I'm just not gay"

"We'll see in a couple of years"

The rest of the ride went peacefully, with Artemis getting closer and closer to Apollo, and Apollo getting closer and close to the window, and me getting closer and closer to the opposite side.

"We're here! Let's enjoy this luncher" dad said his mad up word for the combination of lunch and dinner.

The waitress showed us to a private room and gave us each our menus, the type of menu that doesn't have the price of the plate, so you know it's really expensive. The table had a rectangular shape, so my dad sat on one side, Leto sat in the side right beside him and I sat next to her. Artemis and Apollo sat beside each other on the other side of the table; Apollo sitting right in front of me.

After we ordered and the waitress brought us our drinks, my dad began to speak.

"First of all, thank you for agreeing on meeting with us on such short notice. I promise you won't regret this. I was talking with Leto here about what our next big move for the music industry should be, and we believe we have got it." he did his dramatic pause, which really just felt like an uncomfortable silence

"Well? Are you going to tell us?" I asked annoyed at life

"We were thinking of making your musical debut. The twins will make an album with you and Leto, and you will make a single with Artemis. The songs will be about teenage love and all that corny stuff, but one song has to really connect with the audience, so out of you three, the one who writes the best lyric will get a 50k bonus. How does that sound?"

"That's awesome, I'm in!" Apollo said without thinking

"I'm also in," I said less enthusiastically

"Great, what about you Artemis?" Leto asked kindly, in a motherly way.

"Why do I have to make a single with Perseus?" she said my name with distaste

"Artemis, I know you aren't a fan of being with boys. I completely understand that. But in order to make a good marketing strategy and help you reach the top from the start." Artemis sat thinking deeply. After around a minute she came to her conclusion.

"Alright, I will do it" they sighed "but on one condition"

"What is it? I will personally make sure that condition is met"

"Actually, Percy is the one that has to meet the condition"

"Fine, what is it," I said tiredly

"It's actually two things" she grinned, which gave me the creeps

"Just tell them already"

"First of all, I want you to answer me something after this meal. And you can't lie about it."

"Sounds easy. What's the second condition?"

"You have to eat from my sushi"


	13. Flamenco

Artemis POV

"Nope. No way. I'll do anything but that" Percy shook his head

"Then I guess I won't do a single with you"

Poseidon Kalivas glared intensively at Percy, not even letting Percy a chance to say something before he told him sternly.

"Percy you are eating the sushi, end of discussion. It's about time you learn to eat different types of food, not only your mother's blue cookies"

"Look who's talking! You won't eat anything that has ever lived on water. NOT EVEN FROGS"

"That is not of the matter at hand. It is not me who needs to eat the sushi" Poseidon said in a really Starfire from Teen Titans way

"I hate you" Percy muttered, not being heard by anybody else.

Quickly enough the food arrived. As I was the only one who HATED Chinese food, I got the salmon roll sushi and Unagi. I had twelve rolls, so I just ate ten and left the other two for my best friend.

Apollo had gotten Chao Mein I think, I'm not really sure about Chinese food names. What I do know is that the smell gave me nausea. Soon after everyone had finished their food, Poseidon was about to pay the bill and leave, but I reminded everyone of a really important detail.

"Perseus, eat your food. You know that there are children in Africa who are starving right now"

"Me eating your leftovers is not going to magically give little Ubvwivwuwe freaking McDonalds"

"Just eat the sushi" I pushed the plate so it was in front of him.

He inspected the rolls with great detail, smelling them and looking at them as if they had little parasites that he needed to detect. He grabbed one with his chopsticks and attempted to eat it, but it fell out of his grasp.

"Instead Of culturally appropriating Japanese people, you could accept your whiteness and eat it with your hands, or a fork" I told him trying not to laugh

"I will use chopsticks like the Chinese do." When Apollo heard this, he intervened in our conversation

"Actually sushi isn't from China, or even Japan for that matter. It comes from Southeast Asia, so we can assume somewhere like Vietnam or Laos. Also, the best way to experience the full flavors of sushi is by putting the fish in your tongue first and then put the whole roll in your mouth. That way the fish is what you'll savor the most."

"I hate this" Percy muttered as he put an entire roll on his mouth. He gagged, cried, and did a whole show like a little four year old would do. It didn't get better with the second roll, in fact, that time he went to the bathroom to puke.

Ten minutes had passed and Percy had yet to return from his trip to pukeland. We were all getting frustrated, so I volunteered (more like they volunteered me) to check on Percy.

I walked outside of our private room and into the bathroom. The men's where vacant (don't ask me how I knew) and he wasn't in the women's bathroom...and this place did not have an all-gender bathroom. Growing preoccupied, I ran outside of the building in search of him.

It was easy to find him, as he was sitting outside of the restaurant with a pale face and a slouched position. Feeling bad for him, I went ahead and sat next to him.

"Hey are you ok?" I asked him with concern

"Why would you care?"

"I care about you. No matter what happens, I always will." Sincerity followed my every word "I'm sorry about doing that to you. I didn't know it would have this effect."

"Don't worry. You don't have to care for me" He said looking at me in the eyes.

"But I can and I will. I hate that you hurt me, and trust me that it will take a long while to forgive you. But at the same time, I cannot let you get hurt." I looked at him in the eyes. "Why does a fake relationship breakup hurt so much?"

"Maybe at some point it stopped being fake" he muttered, inching closer to myself. I turned my head away, not daring to meet his eyes.

The sense of soft lips on mines corner was felt, and I instinctively turned my head towards Percy. He began to kiss me, and I would be lying if I said I didn't kiss back. Like if my body had no control over its own movements.

I pulled away from the kiss, disappointing Percy and, in some degree, me.

"Arty-"

"No Percy, we can't do this. Not anymore. You hurt me more than you can imagine, and I'm not here to get hurt again. I think it's best if we pretend it never happened. You tell the girl you like you like her and I'll go back to being the popular girl with the shitty life."

"But Artemis, you're the one I like. No, you're the one I love" Percy confessed. I sat shocked at the revelation, no sure what to do with that information.

"It'll pass"

"No it won't, I have never felt this way for anybody before" the way he said it made it very clear that it was a lie

"Percy, you hurt me and then lied to me. You made me believe that life could be so much more and then you took it away from me. You broke my heart and then literally fought someone because I was trying to move on-"

"You were drunk"

"Point is Percy, we're just not meant to be. You may care about me and I may care about you, but this between us will only hurt one of us. And we both know who the person who ends up getting hurt is. You're just too late. Now come inside, the rest of the crew is waiting" I told him as I got up and entered the restaurant.

Once at the car, I sat in the back seat with Apollo and Leto, while Percy sat in the front and Poseidon drove. Each and every one of us exchanged phone numbers so we could keep in communication, and soon enough we were dropped off at our home.

"Ahhh sweet home Alabama" Apollo said when we entered the house

"That country accent really doesn't suit you"

"Don't mock me" he glared. I went up the stairs, but before I reached the third step, Apollo called me.

"Wait Artemis, can you come down a second?" I went and sat down next to him at the sofa, Lifetime playing on the tv. "You know that whatever you need I'm here for you, right?"

"Yeah I know"

"If you ever need me to beat someone up you just tell me, just a couple of questions asked" he laughed, but I didn't. I had been uneasy since my talk with Percy.

"Do you think I'll ever find someone?" The question left my lips without even thinking about it.

"Of course you will. You're my sister, one of the Galanis twins! Not even the prince of Greece is enough for you. Trust me, when you love someone, you feel it in your stomach. It is something more than caring, it's something else." He slung an arm around me "I know that you care about him, but you should really think about everything. How he makes you feel, what he does for you, everything. If he's right for you, it'll happen. If it doesn't, then he wasn't the one for you"

Such wise words weren't common for someone like Apollo, so I just hugged him tightly. It had been a while since we had our sibling moment. Without any drama or insecurity, just love between twins.


	14. Ballad

Artemis POV

"Well students, I can't say I'm disappointed. Actually, yes I can. The students of OMC should be idols to the rest of the musical movement, but the grand majority of you has FLUNKED IN EVERYTHING MUSIC RELATED. The only chance you may have for raising your grade is the final project, which as I have already told you, is to compose a song of different genres. If you fail to do this, you will be expelled" Mrs. Olmedo explained

"But this is our senior year! You can't expel us!" Eros tried to reason with her

"Mr. Amore do you have any idea the severity of this situation?"

"No but-"

"Then do not interrupt me and say what we can and can't do. Now I'm going to give you all your report cards, and what I can tell you is that the only students who did not fail were Apollo and Athena" I wanted to stand up and cry for the injustice. It was possible that Apollo had a better grade than me, I won't deny it. But Athena?! She is only good at the actual school part, not music!

"Wait what?" My mouth blubbered without thinking

"I'm as disappointed as you are Ms Galanis. In fact, you were doing well up until two months ago. Come talk after class about it" I nodded, staying quiet because I didn't trust my voice.

Profesor Olmedo began to give out the report cards in alphabetical order.

"Eros Amore, Aphrodite Belcher, Dionysus Chopin, Phoebus Galanis" I could feel my breath hitching

"Phoebe Galanis" the world seemed to stop when she gave me my report card. I couldn't do like Cher in Clueless and make two teachers fall in love...only one teacher was single!

I opened the card and almost fainted out of shock. I got a C in COMPOSITION and an F in Music Theory. That's just impossible.

The rest of the class seemed unimportant when I compared it to my report card. I could feel Apollo glancing at me, but I didn't want to pay attention to him.

The bell rang and everybody left quickly.

"You coming Artemis?" Apollo asked me from the door. I shook my head

"Wait for me outside please. And tell Paolo to take us to the studio today" He nodded with a white people smile and headed out.

I turned around and faced Mrs Olmeda, the scariest teacher in the known universe. Her face was old and she had moon glasses, the kind librarians use. She had short blonde hair, the kind of blonde that it's obvious that is just there so you don't notice her grey hairs.

"Phoebe, sit down." She said kind of calmly, making me even more uneasy. I sat down directly in front of her and started twitching with my hands

"Phoebe, I know I'm a tough teacher, but I really care for your wellbeing. Your grades were spectacular up until two months ago. Now I've heard that you and Percy broke up around that time. Did that break-up take such a severe turn?"

"It's more than the breakup. I don't know, I feel that ever since then, I haven't been able to be me. I want to pursue happiness, but it seems impossible. I've been having family problems since then and overall I've felt kind of alone. Hermes has been acting weird and Apollo only talks to me about either music or love advice; Athena is always talking about school work and Aphrodite seems to only talk about ways to mess with my love life. I don't know, I think I'm just unhappy and that has been affecting my school performance" I released all my feelings

"I see. Tell you what. I'm not here to make you miserable, so instead of having these final grades I'm going to give you a bonus work. If you are able to confess your feelings through a song and that song makes it to the Billboard top 100, I will put you a 100/0, which will bring up your total average. If you do a song but it does not become popular, you will still get 50/0. How does that sound?" I wasn't completely in love with the idea to be honest, but I had to do something to not fail this year.

"Thank you so much Mrs Olmeda, I promise you, you won't regret giving me this chance."

"I hope not. But most importantly Phoebe, I want you to be happy." She smiled "now go, I believe your brother is waiting for you outside" I nodded and picked up my bag. Outside stood Apollo talking with Aphrodite.

Something weird had been going on between them. Neither of them would tell me of course, but I kinda knew what it was. My love life may be a literal mess and as depressing as one can imagine, but I still knew when two people were feeling something for each other.

"Apollo!" I yelled at him, interrupting the uninteresting conversation the two of them were probably having.

"Artemis. Let's go to the studio. Talk to you later Deity" he bid goodbye and she waved back.

There was a lot of traffic on our way to the studio. A route that usually takes twenty minutes took us an hour. Of course it wasn't all bad. Apollo was peeing himself, so being the good sister I am, I started doing things so he could relax.

"Rain. Waterfall. Glook glook. Water dropping. Shhhhhhh" I began telling him

"Lalalalalal shut up shut up" He was yelling with his hands on his ears.

Finally we arrived at the studio. It was a small grey house with a black mailbox in front of it. Nobody would look twice at it, there was nothing special to it. But it was cool in the way that, inside a useless and average house, the future of music was being made.

"BATHROOM" Apollo yelled, running in between both Leto and Poseidon. Percy laughed a little and Leto stared at me in confusion.

"He has been peeing himself since around 45 minutes ago. I would expect him to be back in fifteen minutes"

"Alright. Well nice of you to finally join us. Today is the day where the twins and Leto will start their song." Poseidon said exited for the 'song of the year' as he liked to call it.

"Wait what will I do today then?" Percy asked

"You and I are going to talk about your report card." Poseidon said sternly, even giving me chills.

"Oof roasted" I laughed at Percy

"Look who's talking! Even the teacher had to talk to you after class!" Percy ratted me out. Poseidon looked at me with shock while Leto looked disappointed.

I was about to pounce and choke Percy to death when Apollo came back from his trip to the bathroom.

"Yo who died?" He laughed "so boss, what are we going to be doing today?"

"You guys are going to be starting your song with Leto while Percy and I talk" Poseidon said while Apollo nodded and grabbed my hand.

"Let's go Leto! Wow I'm so excited" I'm times like this I really felt like the older twin. From what our father has said, I am seven minutes older than Apollo.

We entered a room in which a grey circular table stood with three plastic chairs. There were many loose leaf papers in the middle and three mechanical pencils.

"Dibs on that chair" Apollo said and ran towards the chair that was literally identical to the rest.

"Why are you acting so weird today? Did Aphrodite say she was gonna go out with you?" He blushed a deep shade of red and I laughed

"Artemis don't mess with your brother that much," Leto told me in a motherly way.

"Fine. Now let's get down to business"

"To defeat the huns" Apollo said

"If you say one more thing that isn't related to the song I'm going to tell Aphrodite you have AIDS" he shut up and glared at me.

Both Leto and I sat down on the remaining chairs and we began to discuss different ideas for the song.

"We can do a song about unconditional love." Leto suggested

"That's a good idea. Have you ever had unconditional love?" Apollo asked her

"Yes, and I lost it as quick as it came." She said in a sad tone of voice. She turned to me and then to Apollo "I'm going to tell you a story that I haven't told anyone else, but I believe that if someone were to know the story, it should be you two. So please no interruptions" I nodded and Apollo showed a thumbs up.

"So, my unconditional love started with my pregnancy..."


	15. Opera

Artemis POV

"Wait, pregnancy?" Apollo asked before I got a chance to.

"It was seventeen years ago and I was just eighteen. The father of the babies-"

"Babies? You mean they were more than one?"

"Yes, they were twins. A boy and a girl. Back to the story, that man was extremely powerful, and I fell for him. After I got pregnant, I found out that the man had a wife. I could not believe that I had done such thing, but what was done was done. I was not going to get rid of my babies, they were a part of me. So I carried them for nine months on my belly, ate salmon and avocado so their brain would develop, and sang them songs every night. The wife of the man was very jealous, and she had a reason to be, so she sent people to get rid of me and my babies, talked to every hospital in the States just so I could not give birth at any of them. I fled to Puerto Rico as the wife had not talked to any hospitals over there, and because they would still be United States citizens, and I have birth to them."

"What happened then?" Apollo asked

"As soon as they were born, they were taken away by their father. I tried to get them back, I really did, but he threatened me and their own safety. I wouldn't dare to ever endanger them, and so I left them with their father. All my life I have felt guilty for abandoning them, I've felt sad for not being there for them on their birthdays, on their Christmas, on anything. But what hurts me the most is that my children have always thought of another woman as their mother." She had tears in her eyes while I just sat still, as this story felt quite familiar

"You said that was seventeen years ago right?" Apollo asked, thinking the same thing I was

"Yes, they would be sixteen right now. From what I heard, they are really into music and archery" my eyes widened so much that I thought they were going to pop out. I looked at Leto with tears in my own eyes, Apollo doing the same.

"M-m-mom?" I said stuttering

"Yes Artemis, I am your mother"

I sat there paralyzed, I mean I had just found out that Apollo's and I hypothesis was right, our mother wasn't our mother. What we didn't know was that our dad THREATENED OUR SAFETY just so our mom wouldn't see us. Furthermore, our mother had sought out Poseidon to...wait.

"Is that the reason why we're doing all of this? So we could spend time together while also doing work? And with Poseidon, our dads rival so it would be a reason for us not to tell our dad anything?" Apollo said beating me to the punch, as he always does

"Yes. As soon as I found out that you were going to be graduating this year, I thought about it being the perfect time to meet you. I have always been there for you, even when you didn't know about it. I've always helped you in any way I could"

"Wait, that time at the archery competition..."

"Yes. Percy did pay for you to enter, but do you really think they would pay attention to a sixteen year old? I had talked with the coordinator before and he agreed to my conditions, that's why there was that special tent already set up"

"Wait what? That was you?!" Apollo yelled "I'm a better archer than you"

"As if! You may be a little better at music but I'm better at archery. Don't deny it" he stayed silent, glaring at me

"Wait so you are our mother, how will this change things now?" I asked Leto-I mean mom

"It will not change anything until you graduate. If your father were to find out where you are before you graduate, I fear what he may do" I thought she was joking, but taking a look to her face it was clear she wasn't. I knew that our dad wasn't a person with the best temperament (understatement) but I wouldn't think he would do anything to us.

"Is that why the album is released five days after we graduate?" Apollo asked mom

"Exactly. So that way we can spend time together without your father interfering. Poseidon is also aiding us, he has been really supportive in all of this process." Mom explained

"I still can't believe you're our mother" I muttered. Then, I did what I had been hoping to do all my life. I hugged her with all my force, all the years of living with the feeling of abandonment reflected in the hug.

Apollo joined in, and for the first time in forever, I had the feeling that I was part of a family.

Afterwards we finished the song and called it "The Unconditional". It was really beautiful, Apollo singing most of the song, but me and mom singing either on the background or on the verse.

That night Apollo left to hang out with someone (Aphrodite) and I was left alone at my house. Now, I know it sounds bad, well actually like the worst idea anybody could have, but I was all alone while my brother was doing who knows what. Now you can guess what I did.

No I did not text Percy to hook up. Close though.

Do you remember the waiter from Olive Garden? Caleb Woods?

Well I called him to hook up.

aRtEmIs wHaT aRe yOu dOiNg?1?1 tHaT's nOt yOu! Bruh I know it's not me, but right now I've felt kind of alone. Sure I met my mom today; I also discovered that I have lived a lie all my life. Yes I always had an idea, but it's so much different when it's confirmed. It's like you don't know what to believe in anymore.

I snuck out of my house and texted Caleb to pick me up in front of the UPS store downtown. It was around fifteen minutes from my house, so by the time I got there the blue Hyundai Elantra was already waiting for me.

"You ready sexy?" He asked me with a smirk. I cringed, hard, but still nodded. He had 'Livin La Vida Loca' by Ricky Martin playing on his car.

"You know that's my godfather right?"

"Cool" He said. I was regretting this whole decision but still said nothing.

He stopped the car in a secluded part out of town. Nobody was there, just a lot of roads and trees. A perfect spot for, you know.

He turned to me and kissed me furiously, while I just sat there not processing what was happening. He groped my breast and began to kiss me even more intensely. My hands seemed to have a mind of their own and I began to touch his part.

Blah blah blah and not going into much detail, I was about to suck his mhm, but I stopped.

"I can't do this. I'm sorry" I told Caleb

"Come on baby, I won't tell anyone" he tried to push my head down but I resisted.

"No I won't do it"

"Fine, get out of the car then."

"But we're miles away from town"

"Out!" He yelled. I excited and he took off in his car of desire.

I was left to walk god knows how many miles back home. There was nothing but trees and the road. I took this moment of horribleness to cry my heart out. My life seemed like a mess, nothing was what I thought it was and I almost did something I would regret the rest of my life.

I must've walked a few miles, my mind wandering on its own. I wasn't looking ahead, but I did saw some lights that seemed to move, going side to side and growing brighter as I moved forward.

"Artemis!" Someone yelled from beside me. I turned and I was pushed out of the road.

_Thud thud_

I looked over where I was just at and I saw blood on the road. The car that seemed to hit the person ran off.

I ran towards the guy laying on the floor. I turned him around and couldn't believe who I saw.


	16. Bachata

Artemis POV

"We are gathered here today to treasure the memory of Hermes Javier Veloz Kim" The priest said at the funeral. It had been three days since he saved my life, three days since he had died.

If I hadn't gone to freaking whore around, my best friend would be here with me. He was dead because of me, literally.

The image of him laying there, motionless, with the ton of blood tracking his body is something that will haunt me forever. I had tried to give him CPR, but it was a lost cause. His last words still linger in my mind.

_It wasn't your fault Artemis_

When the paramedics arrived, he was already long gone. My best friend since elementary school, the guy I told everything to, he left this world because I was so careless.

His funeral passed on really fast and the cemetery was close by. As his body descended, his mother fell to her knees and cried in agony while her husband grabbed her shoulders. I was about to grab Apollo's hand, but when I went to do it, I saw him putting his hands on Aphrodite's shoulders, giving her the comfort I so deeply needed.

It was at that moment that I felt truly alone. My brother wouldn't give me the attention I needed and the guy who would give me that was long gone. The only one left was Percy, and I had just screwed that up two months ago. My vision became very blurry and the world started spinning. I could not stand up straight.

A couple of hands grabbed my by arms, giving me support. I looked behind me and Percy was standing there, not even looking at me. At that moment, I did not care if he was my 'ex', I did not care for any drama, I just wanted to mourn my fallen friend.

I locked myself in my room as soon as I arrived home. There was no desire to talk to anybody, I just wanted to cry. And cry I did.

When I felt like I could not cry anymore, I went to my computer. In there I had the song Hermes had written that one day.

The song itself was in Spanish, and I did not know any Spanish. I just knew two words, _Hola _and _biblioteca_. So far, whenever I went to a Spanish speaking country, the place I saw the least was a freaking library. But I guess that's US education system.

'Que Locura Enamorarme De Ti' the song was titled. I had heard it before, but something told me that there was a hidden meaning in the song. And so I went to the ever so trusty _Google Translate_ and translated the hell out of that song. With every lyrics, I wrote the English equivalent to it on a piece of my notebook. When it ended, I read the whole testament and began to cry once again. It read this:

_Friend let me tell you all I feel_  
_That I can't live anymore with this secret love_  
_Friend I die without having a kiss from your mouth_  
_Dreaming of the touch of your skin my love_

_Friend I am jealous of even the wind_  
_With me is a vicious love that grows like fire_  
_Yes I think that before I was born I was loving you_  
_And now I have to die of thirst _

_What craziness was falling in love with you _  
_What craziness was focusing just on you_  
_And in silence I love you_  
_And your love has another owner_

_What craziness was falling in love with you_  
_What craziness was focusing just on you_  
_And my voice has your name_  
_Tangled up in my fears_

_Friend I'm jealous of even the wind_  
_With me is a vicious love that grows like fire_  
_Yes I think that before I was born I was loving you_  
_And now I have to die of thirst_

_What craziness was falling in love with you _  
_What craziness was focusing just on you_  
_And in silence I love you_  
_And your love has another owner_

_What craziness was falling in love with you_  
_What craziness was focusing just on you_  
_And my voice has your name_  
_Tangled up in my fears_

_What craziness was falling in love with you_

_...if I knew that your love had another owner_

_...friend I want you to know the impression that your presence has caused on me_

_...I kept falling for you knowing that you only offered a friendship from your part Mami_

_...oh forbidden woman that has inspired the desire to have you _

_...you mouth tangled up with mine, your skin with my skin, touching with pleasure but only in dreams_

_Oh friend if you knew how you have me_  
_If you turned up to my pleads, even if only for one time, I will show you what love is _

_I will burn your bowels, I will hook you up with my kisses of pleasure _  
_I will show you what love is _  
_Decide_  
_For all of your life _

So he literally saved me because he loved me.

"Freaking dumbass. Hermes you stupid little boy" I cried out while I cried even more. Guilt was creeping over me in ways that I hadn't experienced ever before. All this time that I felt alone because of my own drama, I failed to see how he felt.

I did not feel that way for him, and I think that's what hurt me the most. He was the ideal man, he would never hurt me, not even unintentionally. But still I only thought of him as a friend. No matter how much I tried to remember him as something more, he was simply a friend to me.

Another idea came to my head. From the two guys who I know had feelings for me, two of them had died. First Orion and now Hermes, next thing I know someone else will die.

Time passed slowly. For days I had no motivation to do anything. I tried to talk with someone about how I felt, but I soon learned that the only person besides Apollo who I felt comfortable talking to about everything was Hermes. And he was gone.

I took the initiative to take control over my love life. No longer would I was and do stupid things that would get someone killed, I would just be direct with what I want. My life has been running me over instead of being led my me, and I intended to change that. It was sad that it took the death of my best friend to realize it, but I will not let his sacrifice flop away.

That was the definite moment when me, Phoebe Artemis Galanis, decided to change my life around. I was going to finally take control of it.

_Thank you Hermes_

**If you want to hear the song, it's called "Que Locura Enamorarme De Ti" by Eddie Santiago. Anyways thank you so much for reading so far and I hope you have enjoyed so far**


	17. Country

Percy POV

Is it normal to know a lot of people who die? I mean, considering that I'm not living in Yemen, I've already known two people who are somewhat close to me die.

The first one was my first girlfriend and the reason I even came to OMC. Annabeth, my first love, died attacked by a rooster. No I'm not kidding, one of the claws of the rooster cut her main artery in her leg and she bled to death. I took her death really badly and was really depressed. My mom took me to a psychiatrist and his advice was to move to a different place, along with some pills I had to take.

That's the real reason why I came here, I love music but I'm not really talented. Fortunately my dad knows a lot of people so I could go here. I slowly began to accept Annabeth's death as a thing of the past, something that wouldn't happen again.

Then came Hermes' death in the hit-n-run. Artemis was the first one to see him, she was the one who called 911. And just as I was in the months following Hermes death, she has been like that for the past couple of weeks. She refused to talk to anybody, refused to go to rehearsal, and refused to eat. We were all worried for her health, but none more than Apollo and Leto for some unknown reason.

It didn't take me by surprise when Apollo and Leto approached me one day, with their faces showing concern. I knew immediately who this conversation was going to be about.

"Hi Percy, can we talk to you for a second?" Apollo asked putting a hand on my shoulder

"Yeah sure, what about?"

"It's Artemis. She hasn't been acting like herself as you may have noticed. It's getting to the point that we fear for her. We were wondering, could you go talk to her?" Leto pleaded me

I looked at both Apollo and Leto in the eyes, realizing that this seemed to be the last option for either of them.

"Alright I'll do it. But there's a slight problem, where is she?" Nobody knew where Artemis was outside of class, not even during school. She seemed to disappear

"I don't know, all she told me is that she wanted to do what she liked the most in her own solitude," Apollo replied, putting his hands in his pockets and leaning backwards.

Just how was I supposed to know where she was? I mean what else does she like besides music? Think Percy. She had told me that she didn't enjoy music so much, she enjoyed...

"Archery!" I yelled unintentionally, making both Leto and Apollo jump in surprise.

"Bro what?" Apollo asked

"I know where she is" before they got an opportunity to ask me where that was, I took off running. With my car keys in hand, I opened my Prius and drove off at the slow speed said car has. Sometimes it's got to be eco-friendly, but why can't eco-friendly also mean cool?

Anyways I drove off to the first place my mind came to. It was a clearing with a bunch of animals, and back when we were '_dating_' we both spent the weekends there shooting stuff. I never shot anything, but I always accompanied her in her hunts. She seemed so happy and relaxed when she did it, I think that's when I began to fall in love with her.

That's right, fall in love with her. I finally admit it, even if it's too late now.

So I drove to the clearing and guess who I found.

Nobody.

I got off the car and walked towards the center, trying to see if there was anybody. Alas, there was nobody, and I just yelled a giant F to the lord above.

"FUCK" I yelled at the top of my lungs

"Percy you just scared the deers," a feminine and beautiful voice said from behind me. I turned around and it was who I was looking for.

"How did you do that? I literally looked around and there was nobody!"

"It's different when nature seems to be your true home. Anyways, what are you doing here? It's been months since you've been here," she asked me, putting her hands in her hips.

"I was looking for you"

"Why?" Her face was indifferent

"Everyone is worried about you. I'm worried" I said coming closer to her.

"Don't be. I'm fine. I'm even on the Olympic team of archery" she said turning away and shooting a bird in the deadeye.

"You're what?! That's so awesome! Going to represent America I see"

"No, I figured it would be easier to represent where I was actually born at. So I contacted the Olympic Committee of Puerto Rico and I'm going to Tokyo next year. I did a couple of professional tournaments and I'm in. No thanks to anybody though,"

"Artemis-" I tried to talk to her, but she shut me up

"Don't call me that. I'm not her anymore, that's not how I'm named in archery, that's not who I am" she looked at me in the eyes

"Then what's your name now?"

"Diana Blanco," she told me "the lone wolf"

Artemis seemed so broken, like the only way to make her feel any better was to shun everyone away.

"Artemis, Apollo is very worried for you"

"So what? He can stay eating Aphrodite, just like he was when I needed him by my side" she yelled at me with her eyes wet, preventing the river of tears from falling

"Artemis-"

"Don't. Say. That. Name. Artemis died with Hermes. He was the only one who understood, and I never paid any attention. He died just so I could live, so this worthless piece of meat could go on and love someone else. I can't do that Percy. Hermes was the best thing that could've happened to me, and I didn't realize it until he was gone.

"The whole reason why he died was because of me! I went over to literally fuck but I bailed at last minute, so I was left in the middle of nowhere. And while my dumbass was having an existential crisis, he pushed me out of the way and got hit by a car.

"I heard his song, later on, the one for the project, and it was literally a love declaration. Percy, no matter how hard I try, Hermes was nothing more than a friend. But at the same time, he was so much more. He was the reason I laughed, he was mine. He's the second person who has died because of me, I just don't want anybody to get hurt again" she fell to her knees and cried. With her bow and quiver at her side, she hugged her knees as if her own life depended on it.

It hurt me so much to see her like this, so broken and helpless. I didn't know what else to do, so I went over her and hugged her. She didn't seem to mind, she just kept crying and crying.

"I'm here for you, don't worry. I would sing for you but I remembered you don't like music that much"

"I don't mind if you sing" she muttered

And so I began to sing the only song which I think would fit right now (false statement disclaimer). I began to sing the white girl anthem.

"_Where it began, I can't begin to know_  
_But then I know it's growing strong_

_Was in the spring_  
_Then spring became the summer_  
_Who'd have believed you'd come along_

_Hands, touching hands_  
_Reaching out, touching me, touching you_

_Sweet Artemis_  
_Good times never seemed so good_  
_I'd be inclined_  
_To believe they never would_  
_But now I_

_Look at the night and it doesn't seem so lonely_  
_We filled it up with only two_

_And when I hurt_  
_Hurting runs off my shoulders_  
_How can I hurt when I'm holding you_

_One, touching one_  
_Reaching out, touching me, touching you_

_Sweet Artemis_  
_Good times never seemed so good_  
_I'd be inclined_  
_To believe they never would_  
_Oh no no_

_Sweet Artemis_  
_Good times never seemed so good_  
_I'd be inclined_  
_To believe they never would_"

"I love you Percy," Artemis said, looking at my eyes. I didn't know how to react, so I just hugged her even tighter

"I love you too Artemis"


	18. Pop

Artemis POV

"Tsugi no kyoku wa 2020-nen no kono natsu no hittodesu. Arutemisu to Aporo wa, Tōkyō de mottomo ninkinoaru hādorokkusongudearu 'Bring me to life' de sekaiichi no hitto kyoku o kiroku shi, futatabi saisoku no kyoku no kiroku o yaburimashita" the man on the radio station said.

Percy and I, along with Apollo, were in Tokyo this summer. I wasn't staying with them, as I had my own free stay at the Olympic Village, but I still hung out with both of them on a regular basis.

Instead of practicing as one should do when you're at the Olympics, I opted to just take it relax. I mean, I've always done stuff better when I'm relaxed, and if I don't do this well I will literally kill myself.

"Hey, that's our song!" Apollo said once the piano started playing.

"Bruh that's what they said at the beginning" Percy flicked him

"Ouch! Wait, how'd you know that?"

"I know eleven languages" Percy shrugged as if it was nothing.

"You," Apollo pointed his finger at Percy "know eleven languages?"

"Yeah, it's the only thing I'm actually really good at. Plus, living in New York City actually helped me speak all of them on a pretty regular basis," Percy kept eating his McDonalds' chicken McNuggets.

"Bro you have to teach me at least one!" Apollo said excitedly

"Fine. Repeat after me. _Yo"_

_"Yo" _Apollo repeated

"_Soy_"

"_Soy"_

_"Maricón"_

_"Maricón" _

Percy fell on the floor laughing while Apollo just sat confused. He looked at me, asking me to hit Percy...which I did because I'm a really great sister.

"Ouch! Why'd you do that for?"

"Don't mess so much with Apollo. He can't defend himself,"

"Fine, anything for you Arty"

We stayed chatting and listening to the radio, which seemed to literally only put our songs on.

This summer, Apollo and I became an international sensation. Soon after our graduation, we released Apollo and I's album, titled '_To my dear friend'_. The title was actually dedicated to Hermes because he was both our best friend and we thought his memory should not be forgotten, even if it is in between the lines.

Our album consisted of twelve songs; ten of those were on the Billboard top 10 and all of them were on the Billboard top 15. Poseidon had already booked a World Tour for both Apollo and me (which would start in August).

After graduation, we moved out of our home, as we didn't feel comfortable living there after all we knew. It was really hard saying goodbye to Hebe, even harder to leave her without a great explanation, but it was something we had to do. We moved into our real mom's house and we couldn't have been happier.

It was like the missing piece from the puzzle that had been solving since the beginning of my life. At first, I followed everything my dad and stepmother told me to do without even asking, I was the perfect daughter everyone would want to have. Of course, this didn't make me happy in the least.

After I met Percy, I opened my eyes to new opportunities and a new sense of seeing the world. I lied to my dad about where I was all day and started doing the thing I enjoyed with the one I enjoyed it the most. Even though I did all this, I still didn't break from the spectrum that had been set on me for my entire life.

It wasn't until Hermes died that I finally opened up. It did take me a while to open up, I'm not gonna lie, but I finally understood that I had to live my life. I finally told Percy how I felt and gave me, and him, the opportunity to start a relationship.

That was the best decision i'd ever made, since then I have been so happy that everything went better. We finished the album in a week after that and my grades went up. They were so great that I was the Valedictorian of my class!

Percy was really the best guy who could ever want to be with me. Aside from his physical features (let's be honest here, he's hotttt), his personality helped me cope with everything that had happened, while also helping me to be a better me. We started going on our hunting trips again, we started writing music together, and I went to all his swimming competitions.

Long story short, and skipping forward because I'm not in the mood to narrate a freaking archery meeting against a bunch of Koreans, Apollo headed back home after I won the gold medal in the Olympics (which was awesome let me tell you). The feeling of hearing the anthem of the land you were born in is something I will never forget. I may not have lived in Puerto Rico ever, but I still felt a little something towards the small little Caribbean island.

Percy stayed with me in Tokyo for a couple of more days. We hung out, did all the tourist stuff, and acted like a couple. One particular day though, he began acting really weird. He didn't talk to me for the whole day and avoided me the whole day.

I was really mad when I received a text from Percy saying to come over to his room. Not a single word the entire day and then he asks me to go over to his room?!

I went over of course, but ready to yell at him for his audacity. I knocked on the door three times, ready to punch Percy when he opened the door.

"It's open" I heard from behind the door. How was a hotel room open? Isn't that against security codes or something?

"How?"

"Just come in" I opened the door and, inside the room, was a firefighter worst dream.

Dozens of scented candles were burning on the floor and every available space. I kept walking towards where the bed and desk was, but there was nobody there.

"What the-" I was interrupted by the sound of a guitar-playing from behind me. I turned around and there stood Percy wearing neat attire, something very unusual for him.

"We'll do it all  
Everything  
On our own

We don't need  
Anything  
Or anyone

If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know  
How to say  
How I feel

Those three words  
Are said too much  
They're not enough

If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told  
Before we get too old  
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time  
Chasing cars  
Around our heads

I need your grace  
To remind me  
To find my own

If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told  
Before we get too old  
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am  
All that I ever was  
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where  
Confused about how as well  
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?" Percy sang and then kissed me. Once we broke away, all my madness was gone

"Percy, what was that song?"

"I wrote it for you for this exact moment. I called it Chasing Cars, but that isn't important right now. The important thing is the meaning" He inched closet to me "Artemis, I have never felt this way towards anyone. You're perfect for me and I can't even begin to describe how I feel towards you. _I love you_ is too casual for this feeling. I can't even begin to imagine a world without you and that's why,"

He kneeled in front of me and put his hand on his jacket pocket.

"Phoebe Artemis Galanis, will you marry me?" I had tears coming out of my eyes. This was so sudden, so unexpected. I mean, _marry him now?_

"No Percy." I replied. His happy face turned upside down and he just stayed in his position paralyzed.

"W-wh-wha-"

"Percy we're only 17. I love you but this is really extreme. Let's just explore the world together. I won't go away, I love you way too much for that, but you have to trust that I do. If we got married now you would've regretted it, and I want to spend my life with you. So, hold on to this for later, because next time it will be a yes" I kissed him.

"Artemis, I really love you"

"I know Percy. I love you too" and just like that my life was in the best possible position. All those years of not feeling like myself worth it, because I could now be myself with the person I loved the most, with a family that loved me like I loved them.


End file.
